Rachel Dolezal story 'not over yet,' says Spokane editor

New mug of Spokesman-Review Editor Gary Graham taken on 1/5/2010. COLIN MULVANY colinm@spokesman.com
New mug of Spokesman-Review Editor Gary Graham taken on 1/5/2010. COLIN MULVANY colinm@spokesman.com

The woman who resigned as head of a local NAACP branch, after her parents said she was white, said Tuesday that she started identifying as black around the age of 5, according to the Associated Press.

Rachel Dolezal has resigned as president of the Spokane, Washington branch of the NAACP, lost her position as a part-time African studies instructor at a local university, lost her job as a freelance newspaper columnist and become the subject of a probe by the city Ethics Commission, according to The Associated Press.

Ball State 1972 graduate Gary Graham is editor at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane. The DN talked to him on Tuesday about the topic and how the story has unfolded.

The woman who resigned as head of a local NAACP branch, after her parents said she was white, said Tuesday that she started identifying as black around the age of 5, according to the Associated Press.

Rachel Dolezal has resigned as president of the Spokane, Washington branch of the NAACP, lost her position as a part-time African studies instructor at a local university, lost her job as a freelance newspaper columnist and become the subject of a probe by the city Ethics Commission, according to The Associated Press.

Ball State 1972 graduate Gary Graham is editor at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane. The DN talked to him on Tuesday about the topic and how the story has unfolded.

The woman who resigned as head of a local NAACP branch, after her parents said she was white, said Tuesday that she started identifying as black around the age of 5, according to the Associated Press.

Rachel Dolezal has resigned as president of the Spokane, Washington branch of the NAACP, lost her position as a part-time African studies instructor at a local university, lost her job as a freelance newspaper columnist and become the subject of a probe by the city Ethics Commission, according to The Associated Press.

Ball State 1972 graduate Gary Graham is editor at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane. The DN talked to him on Tuesday about the topic and how the story has unfolded.

The woman who resigned as head of a local NAACP branch, after her parents said she was white, said Tuesday that she started identifying as black around the age of 5, according to the Associated Press.

Rachel Dolezal has resigned as president of the Spokane, Washington branch of the NAACP, lost her position as a part-time African studies instructor at a local university, lost her job as a freelance newspaper columnist and become the subject of a probe by the city Ethics Commission, according to The Associated Press.

Ball State 1972 graduate Gary Graham is editor at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane. The DN talked to him on Tuesday about the topic and how the story has unfolded.

Q:

Is there a large African-American community in Spokane?

A:

"No, it’s very small. I hate to site the statistic, because I’d probably be wrong but it’s a very small African-American community here."

Q:

What are race relations like in this community? How big of a role did this NAACP chapter play?

A:

"The NAACP, they have a presence here. I don’t know how many members they have, but they’ve always been perceived as an active group. In terms of race relations, boy you know, I’m probably not… I’m a white guy. I live in this community; I see mostly white faces day-to-day. Every community has a degree of racism; we would be naïve to deny that.“

Q:

When you and your journalists first learned that the NACCP President there might not be who she said she was, what was your initial reaction?

A:

“One of our columnists had been researching this for some time. His editor and he had been talking about it. I didn’t become aware of it until last week, when it appeared that there were developments happening that we would want to write about. I never met Rachel Dolezal, she had a pretty good reputation in town, she was well-know. This story has gone internationally. We went about trying to cover it as best we could.”

Q:

What is it like for something like this to happen in the community that you live in?

A:

"It’s both exciting and frustrating. Frustrating because this is not the kind of story that reflects well on your community, but as journalists it’s a hell of a story. We have been pursuing it very aggressively. There are almost new developments everyday that are coming out. This story’s not over yet.”

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