‘A setback’: Activists fret about Rachel Dolezal impact

In this image released by NBC News, former NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal appears on the "Today" show set on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, in New York. Dolezal, who resigned as head of a NAACP chapter after her parents said she is white, said Tuesday that she started identifying as black around age 5, when she drew self-portraits with a brown crayon, and "takes exception" to the contention that she tried to deceive people. Asked by Matt Lauer if she is an "an African-American woman," Dolezal said: "I identify as black." (Anthony Quintano/NBC News via AP) In this image released by NBC News, former NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal appears on the "Today" show set on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, in New York. Dolezal, who resigned as head of a NAACP chapter after her parents said she is white, said Tuesday that she started identifying as black around age 5, when she drew self-portraits with a brown crayon, and "takes exception" to the contention that she tried to deceive people. Asked by Matt Lauer if she is an "an African-American woman," Dolezal said: "I identify as black." (Anthony Quintano/NBC News via AP)

By Associated Press June 17, 2015 1 min read

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – Civil rights activists worry the ruse perpetrated by former NAACP Spokane leader Rachel Dolezal will hurt their efforts in a region that has struggled with racial issues in the past.

Dolezal resigned her NAACP post this week after her parents said she was a white woman who for years posed as black.

Spokane, a city of 210,000, is 90 percent white and the major population center of the intermountain region known as the Inland Northwest. Only about 2 percent of Spokane, which is about 270 miles east of Seattle, is black.

The Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi organization, was for decades based north of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The group was bankrupted in 2000 following a lawsuit pursued by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and it largely ceased to exist.