NAACP chapter president questioned about her race

The head of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington, is facing questions about whether she lied about her racial identity. Her family says she is white, though she has portrayed herself as African-American.

Rachel Dolezal would not answer questions about her background in an interview with The Spokesman-Review newspaper.

"That question is not as easy as it seems," she said Thursday. "There's a lot of complexities, and I don't know that everyone would understand that."

Dolezal is president of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, a civil-rights organization, an adjunct professor in the Africana Studies Program at Eastern Washington University and chairwoman of Spokane's police overnight board.

Spokane Mayor David Condon and City Council President Ben Stuckart say an inquiry is underway into whether she violated city polices when she listed herself as white, black and American Indian on her application for the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission.

"If this is true, I'll be very disappointed," Stuckart said Thursday, adding that the council will meet soon to discuss the issue.

Dolezal's mother, Ruthanne, said the family is Czech, Swedish and German, with some Native American roots.

Ruthanne Dolezal said that she and her daughter have not been in touch for years but that Rachel Dolezal began to portray herself as African-American eight or nine years ago after the family adopted four black children.

Dolezal received a full scholarship to Howard University, the historically black college, fter applying to study art with a portfolio of "exclusively African-American portraiture," the Washington Post reported.

"It's very sad that Rachel has not just been herself," the mother told the newspaper by phone from her home in Montana. "Her effectiveness in the causes of the African-American community would have been so much more viable and she would have been more effective if she had just been honest with everybody."

Rachel Dolezal says the controversy is emerging because of legal issues between family members. Her mother says the family has been aware of the racial claims but has only commented about them when contacted.

The Spokane chapter of the NAACP issued a statement on Friday on Rachel Dolezal's "enduring a legal issue with her family," saying, "We respect her privacy in this matter."

"One's racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership," the group said. "The NAACP Alaska-Oregon-Washington State Conference stands behind Ms. Dolezal's advocacy record."

Eastern Washington University would not discuss a personal issue, spokesman Dave Meany told The Spokesman-Review.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press