Rachel Dolezal, the NAACP chapter president who claimed to be black, is resigning from her position according to a recent press release.
She wrote to the organization’s executive committee and said her resignation is in the best interest of the NAACP.
Dolezal, 37, a professor in the Africana Education Department at Eastern Washington University, made headlines when news surfaced that she was presenting herself of mixed race but was really born to white parents.
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“In the eye of this current storm, I can see that a separation of family and organizational outcomes is in the best interest of the NAACP,” Dolezal said in a statement posted to the organization’s Facebook page. “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 worked many years with the NAACP and became a prominent figure in the civil rights movement.
The NAACP issued a statement supporting Dolezal.
“One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership,” the statement read.
In her statement, Dolezal did not go into detail as to why she was claiming to be black, Native American and white. She said while so much attention is being placed on race, we shouldn’t lose sight of other world issues at hand.
She wrote “while challenging the construct of race is at the core of evolving human consciousness, we can NOT afford to lose sight of the five Game Changers (Criminal Justice & Public Safety, Health & Healthcare, Education, Economic Sustainability, and Voting Rights & Political Representation) that affect millions, often with a life or death outcome.”
