SEATTLE (Reuters) – Rachel Dolezal, a civil rights advocate who became embroiled in national controversy over her racial identity, announced her resignation yesterday as leader of a local branch of the NAACP in Washington state.
Dolezal, 37, who served as president of the Spokane chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the country’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, said the controversy over her race had shifted dialogue away from key social and political issues.
“It is with complete allegiance to the cause of racial and social justice and the NAACP that I step aside from the presidency and pass the baton to my vice president, Naima Quarles-Burnley,” Dolezal said in a statement on the NAACP Spokane chapter’s Facebook page.
Dolezal came under intense scrutiny last week after questions emerged about her racial background and a white couple who identified themselves as her biological parents came forward to say she had misrepresented her ethnic background.
Dolezal, who also holds a post in Spokane’s city government, identified herself as white, African-American and Native American on her application, City Council President Ben Stuckart said.
He said the city had opened an investigation of the veracity of her application. Stuckart said Dolezal had filed police complaints of racial discrimination, most recently that she received hate mail.
In announcing her resignation from the NAACP, Dolezal said she had remained quiet through the controversy out of respect for the work of the civil rights group. She did not directly address whether she had misrepresented her race.
