Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP chapter head who stepped down Monday amid accusations that she had misrepresented her race, will appear on NBC’s “Today” on Tuesday to break her silence on the matter.
Dolezal will also appear on “NBC Nightly News” and MSNBC.
The former president of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the NAACP will first speak with “Today” personality Matt Lauer in a live, in-studio interview, before sitting down for separate interviews with Savannah Guthrie for “NBC Nightly News” and Melissa Harris-Perry for MSNBC, and NBCBLK, NBCNews.com’s African-American vertical.
Dolezal came under fire last week after questions about her race emerged. Her father, Lawrence Dolezal, said in an interview with CNN on Friday, “We do not understand why she feels it’s necessary to misrepresent her ethnicity.”
Added her mother Ruthanne, “Rachel has chosen to distance herself from the family and be hostile towards us. She doesn’t want us to be where she is. She doesn’t want to be seen with us because it ruins her image.”
Dolezal’s Montana birth certificate identifies both of her parents as Caucasian. The 37-year-old’s ancestry is German and Czech, with traces of Native American.
See video: Rachel Dolezal’s Parents Say She Is ‘Trying Desperately to Destroy Her Biological Family’
Dolezal’s parents said last week that she grew up with adopted black siblings, attended school in Mississippi with primarily African American friends and began changing her appearance in 2004. She also married and subsequently divorced an African American man.
Late last week, the NAACP stood by Dolezal, with regional president Gerald Hankerson saying, “We represent all civil rights issues, regardless of a person’s ethnicity. And the quality of the work that she has done to elevate the issues of civil rights in that region is what we applaud.”
However, Dolezal announced her resignation via Facebook on Monday, writing, “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.”