Local NAACP President Is Lying About Being Black, Parents Say


The president of a local NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington, is currently under investigation after her parents, both of whom are white, publicly accused her of lying about being African American.

On Thursday, the city announced it was looking into the allegations of whether Rachel Dolezal, who also serves as the chair of Spokane’s Office of Police Ombudsman Commission and is an adjunct professor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University, violated the city’s code of ethics by falsely identifying herself as African-American in order to serve as chair.

The controversy erupted earlier this week, when Dolezal’s parents, Ruthanne and Lawrence Dolezal, announced that their daughter was fabricating her ancestry. In fact, they say, she is part Swedish, Czech, and German with “traces” of Native American heritage. Her parents supported their claims with official documents including a birth certificate presented to CDA Press

“It is very disturbing that she has become so dishonest,” Ruthanne said in a recent phone interview with CDA Press.

There are other problems as well. For example, a photo posted on the Spokane NAACP chapter’s Twitter account earlier this year shows Dolezal with an African-American man identified in the caption as her father. When asked about the allegations and the photo by a KXLY reporter, Dolezal was evasive and then abruptly walked away.

The photo, which has since been removed, can be seen below:

In an interview published by the Seattle Times on Thursday, Dolezal called the allegations a “multi-layered” issue and again did not respond to any direct questions.

Instead she struck a more philosophical note, saying, “There’s a lot of complexities and I don’t know that everyone would understand that. We’re all from the African continent.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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