Rachel Dolezal told lawyers in Howard University suit that she was Caucasian

By MATTHEW BARAKAT and NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Rachel Dolezal faced tough questions about her racial identity long before her career as a civil rights advocate and expert on African-American culture was derailed by this week’s revelations that she grew up “Caucasian.” More than a decade ago, Howard University’s lawyers questioned whether she had tried to pose as African-American when she applied for admission to the historically black college in the nation’s capital. Dolezal had accused the university of denying her a teaching position because she was white. During a deposition, Howard’s lawyers asked whether she had tried to mislead the admissions office with an essay focused on black history and identity, according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press. “I plunged into black history and novels, feeling the relieving release of understanding and common ground,” she wrote in the essay. “My struggles paled as I read of the atrocities so many ancestors faced in America.” Dolezal resigned her NAACP post this week after her parents accused her of posing as black despite her Czech, German and Swedish ancestry. She now faces a swirl of criticism about other statements she has made. Dolezal’s lawsuit against Howard was dismissed before reaching trial. A court said she failed to prove her claims and ordered her to pay the university’s legal costs. In her admissions essay, she described her family as “transracial,” writing that “at the early age of three I showed an awareness of the richness and beauty of dark skin when I said, ‘Mama, all people are beautiful but black people are so beautiful.”’ During the deposition, Dolezal said she was “talking about black history in novels.” Lawyers pressed her to say if she had ever misled anyone into thinking she was black. “I don’t know that I could lead anyone to believe that I’m African-American. I believe that, you know, in certain context, maybe someone would assume that, but I don’t know that I could convince someone that I’m a hundred percent African-American,” she responded. Asked to explain what she considers her own race to be, she said, “if you have to choose to describe yourself and you’re able to give terms like a fraction or whatever but an overall picture, I consider myself to be Caucasian biologically.” Asked by NBC’s Matt Lauer this week if she is an “an African-American woman,” Dolezal said: “I identify as black.”