Rachel Dolezal poses in provocative glamour girl shots complete with knee-length braids and bellybutton ring two years before she was outed as white
- The images were taken in Washington state in September 2012
- Dolezal's parents say she had already been disguising herself as black for several years by the time the photos were taken
- She has since stepped down as the president of NAACP's Spokane branch and is now on a TV interview tour in New York City
- In one interview, she revealed that her hair is a weave
As
she takes part in a day of TV interviews in New York, it's clear that
Rachel Dolezal is not shy in front of the camera - and these
newly-surfaced photographs reveal that has long been the case.
The
images, taken in Washington state in September 2012, show the civil
rights activist posing on top of rocks as she flashes a pierced
bellybutton beneath a short crocheted top.
In
another set of photos, she leans towards the camera in a floor-length
purple gown while displaying her knee-length, blonde braids.
The
striking look is a far cry from the freckled-faced photos of Dolezal as
a fair-skinned child, which her parents released last week as they
revealed she is white, not black as she has long claimed.
Seductive: Rachel Dolezal posed for this selection of glamourous shots in Washington state in 2012
Poser: Since the photos were taken, it has emerged that she has been lying about her ethnicity
Today she wears her hair in tight brown curls and her skin appears darkened. In an interview with NBC BLK, she revealed that she wears a weave.
At
the time of the photos, she was already involved in civil rights
activism across Idaho, and shortly after they were taken, she became
engaged to an African-American musician from Mississippi but she called
off their wedding just two months later.
Her
parents, Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal, have said that she started
disguising herself as a black woman five years before these new images
were snapped.
After
they revealed that she had been lying about her identity, Dolezal
resigned as the president of Spokane's NAACP - a position she has only
held for six months.
She is now in New York City for interviews with NBC and MSNBC.
The beleaguered civil rights activist appeared on the Today show
on Tuesday for her first live TV interview since the scandal and
slammed suggestions that she is taking part in a 'mockery blackface
performance'.
When
asked by Today host Matt Lauer if presenting herself as a black woman
for years was akin to wearing blackface, she insisted that was not the
case.
'I
have a huge issue with blackface,' she said. 'This is not some freak
"Birth of a Nation" mockery blackface performance. This is on a very
real, connected level. I've had to go there with the experience, not
just a visible representation.'
Lies: Last week Dolezal's estranged parents revealed that their daughter had been lying about her race
Striking: The civil rights activist shows off her hair, which was fair as a child, in long blonde braids
Confident: She posed for the pictures shortly before she became engaged - but later called off the wedding
She added that she first started seeing herself as black when she was just five.
'I
was drawing self portraits with the brown crayon rather than the peach
crayon,' she said. 'That was how I was portraying myself.'
Her
parents have since denied that this happened and said she only started
identifying as black when she was in her 20s or 30s. She is now 37.
Her mother Ruthanne told CNN that she found the interview on the Today show 'disturbing because the false statements continue'.
'As much as we're concerned with her identity issues we're also concerned with her integrity issues,' she said.
In
the interview, she would not answer questions about how she has changed
her appearance to seem black. 'I certainly don't stay out of the sun,'
she offered.
Dolezal
also sat down for interviews with Savannah Guthrie for NBC Nightly
News, Melissa Harris-Perry for MSNBC, and NBCBLK, NBCNews.com's
African-American vertical.
Glamorous: At the time the photos were taken, Dolezal had been lying about her identity for several years
Not shy: Dolezal is now in New York City for TV interviews about her race scandal
Defiant: In her interviews on Tuesday, she has maintained that she sees herself as a black woman
Stubborn: She has continued to deny that she is white despite her parents' revelations last week
Dolezal was also asked by Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC if she was black and she responded simply: 'Yes.'
She said that she had always felt a 'spiritual, visceral' connection to 'the black experience'.
'From
a very young age I felt a spiritual, visceral, instinctual connection
with black is beautiful,' she said. 'Just the black experience and
wanting to celebrate that...
'I
was socially conditioned to not own that and to be limited to whatever
biological identity was thrust upon me and narrated to me, and so I kind
of felt pretty awkward a lot of the time with that.'
She broke her silence just a day after she posted an unapologetic resignation letter to Spokane's NAACP 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,' she wrote.
Speaking out: On Tuesday morning, she
appeared on the Today show for her first live TV interview since it
emerged last week that she is white - not black as she has been claiming
Support: She was joined in the studio on Tuesday by her sons Franklin, left, and Izaiah, right
Confusion:
Other than some 'faint traces' of Native American blood, Ruthanne
Dolezal's mother told reporters the family background is Czech, Swedish
and German. She is pictured left and right as a girl
'It is
my hope that by securing a beautiful office for the organization in the
heart of downtown, bringing the local branch into financial compliance,
catalyzing committees to do strategic work in the five Game Changer
issues, launching community forums, putting the membership on a fast
climb, and helping many individuals find the legal, financial and
practical support needed to fight race-based discrimination, I have
positioned the Spokane NAACP to buttress this transition.'
Despite
the revelations, NAACP stood behind Dolezal in its own statement last
week, but some members of her local chapter supported her decision to
step down.
She
has also left her part-time teaching position in African American
studies at Eastern Washington University but it is unknown if she will
give up her role on the city's police oversight committee.
Dolezal
is also facing a city ethics probe for falsely claiming on an
application for a role as the Citizen Commission of Spokane Police
Ombudsman last year that she was black. She now serves as the chairwoman
of the city's Office of Police Ombudsman Commission.
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