Rachel Dolezal, the NAACP chapter president who was accused of pretending to be black, said Monday that she would step down.
“Please know I will never stop fighting for human rights and will do everything in my power to help and assist, whether it means stepping up or stepping down, because this is not about me. It's about justice," she wrote in a Facebook post.
Her estranged parents told reporters last week that she is "Caucasian by birth," with Czech, Swedish, German and a trace of Native American ancestry, even though she has been representing herself as black for years, and identified herself as black on official documents.
Rachel Dolezal will break her silence with exclusive interviews on NBC News and MSNBC on Tuesday.
Dolezal was scheduled to address the matter at a chapter meeting on Monday night, but the meeting was postponed.
“This resignation today comes amidst the real work of the NAACP and the real challenges to our democracy,” national NAACP President Cornell William Brooks said in a statement. “Ms. Rachel Dolezal has decided to resign to ensure that the Spokane branch remains focused on fighting for civil and human rights,” Brooks said.
"The NAACP is not concerned with the racial identity of our leadership but the institutional integrity of our advocacy,” he added.
Dolezal's mother, Ruthanne, pointed out to MSNBC that her daughter did not apologize in the Facebook post or address "the issue of being dishonest about her ethnicity."
"I don't see any honest way that a person can describe themselves as transracial because your ethnicity comes from your genetic code and what's handed down to you by your parents, your real biological parents," the mother said. "And I think the healthy path to take on this kind of discussion is to find a way to embrace and celebrate who you are — or who you really are."
Dolezal’s teaching position at Eastern Washington University, which she had held for five years, also came to an end in recent days, but a school official didn’t specifically say her departure had anything to do with the controversy.
Dolezal, who was a part-time Africana Education instructor, was “no longer employed by the university” because “her contract expired as scheduled” on Friday, college spokesman Dave Meany told NBC News on Monday. She was scheduled to give the keynote address at the program’s graduation on Friday, but did not attend. Meany said she had worked at the school since 2010 on a quarter-by-quarter basis.
In addition to the job at the NAACP, Dolezal, 37, is the chairwoman of Spokane's Office of Police Ombudsman Commission, a volunteer appointment. On the application for the job, she identified as white, black, and American Indian.
Spokane's ethics commission is investigating whether Dolezal's response on the application violated the city's code of ethics, said Mayor David Condon and City Council President Ben Stuckart in a statement Monday.
"Much has been made about ethnicity, but our concerns are focused squarely on the expectation that our volunteers adhere to the standards of truthfulness, transparency and integrity they agree to when they apply for and join a board or commission," the statement said.
