Rachel Dolezal Didn't Try to Pass as Black at Black College

But NAACP official looks much different now, says former student
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 13, 2015 8:20 AM CDT
Rachel Dolezal Didn't Try to Pass as Black at Black College
In this March 2015 photo, Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, poses for a photo in her Spokane, Wash., home.   (Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review via AP, File)

Rachel Dolezal may be a white woman passing herself off as a black woman, but Jezebel reports that she made no such effort while attending a predominately black college. “She had straight, blonde hair,” a former student at Howard University tells the website. “She didn’t look the way she looks now at all in school," she adds. “She looks about three shades darker.” Dolezal is president of the NAACP in Spokane, and her estranged parents came forward after hearing that their daughter was telling people she was mixed race. Both her parents are white.

People, meanwhile, talks to one of Dolezal's former students in African-American studies at Eastern Washington University who says she's "just confused" by the entire story. "I thought she was mixed," says the woman, who is herself half African-American. "She said her dad was black and her mom was white … that's kind of a big thing to lie about." But she added that she thinks the 37-year-old is a "great person." (The NAACP is standing by Dolezal.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X