Rachel Dolezal
American racial identity activist
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| February 2024 | Dolezal is fired from her position as a public school teacher at Catalina Foothills Unified School District in Tucson, Arizona, for violating the district's social media policy by publishing sexually explicit imagery on OnlyFans. |
| October 2022 | On the UK show Jimmy Carr Destroys Art, Dolezal's sculpture 'Misaligned Mind' was voted by the audience to be destroyed by Jimmy Carr. |
| 2020 | Rachel Dolezal was tricked on Cameo into making a video referencing a white supremacist meme by a user of the platform. |
| March 25 2019 | Entered into a diversion agreement to repay assistance benefits and complete 120 hours of community service to avoid trial for welfare fraud. |
| 2018 | Netflix released 'The Rachel Divide', a documentary by Laura Brownson exploring Dolezal's 2015 racial identity controversy, which received mixed reviews from critics. |
| May 2018 | Charged with second-degree perjury and felony theft by welfare fraud for receiving $8,847 in food and childcare assistance while having unreported income of approximately $83,924. |
| March 2017 | Dolezal publishes her memoir 'In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World', exploring her controversial racial identity. |
| March 27 2017 | Dolezal describes herself as 'trans-black' in an interview. |
| February 2017 | In an interview with The Guardian, Dolezal argues that race is a social construct and that she feels her true essence does not match her anatomy or complexion. |
| February 2017 | Dolezal was receiving food stamps and claimed to be on the brink of homelessness and unable to find employment. |
| 2016 | Deborah Theaker played a parody of Rachel Dolezal in the TV series Lady Dynamite. |
| October 2016 | Dolezal legally changed her name to a Nigerian phrase meaning 'gift of God', stating she wanted to improve her chances of finding work. |
| February 2016 | Gives birth to her second son. |
| November 2 2015 | In an interview on The Real, Dolezal publicly acknowledges being 'biologically born white to white parents' while maintaining she identifies as black. |
| June 2015 | Faced plagiarism accusations from Priscilla Frank at The Huffington Post and Sarah Cascone at Artnet regarding her painting 'The Shape of Our Kind', which was alleged to be nearly identical to J.M.W. Turner's 1840 work 'The Slave Ship'. |
| June 2015 | Maya Rudolph performed an impression of Rachel Dolezal on Late Night with Seth Meyers, bringing her racial identity controversy into popular comedy. |
| June 18 2015 | The Spokane City Council voted unanimously to remove Dolezal from her position as chair of the Police Ombudsman Commission following the investigation findings. |
| June 17 2015 | An investigation concluded that Dolezal had acted improperly, violated government rules, abused her authority, and confirmed workplace harassment allegations. |
| June 16 2015 | Dolezal appears on the Today Show, discussing her racial identity and claiming she was first described as 'transracial' and 'biracial' in articles about her work. |
| June 15 2015 | Dolezal resigned from the NAACP after a controversy surrounding her racial identity became public, ending her brief tenure as chapter president. |
| June 15 2015 | Eastern Washington University officially terminates Dolezal's employment, stating she is 'no longer an employee of the university'. |
| June 11 2015 | The Coeur d'Alene Press publishes 'Black Like Me?' article, revealing Dolezal's misrepresentations about her ethnicity, race, and background. |
| June 10 2015 | KXLY-TV reporter Jeff Humphrey interviews Rachel Dolezal about her racial identity, questioning her claim about her father Albert Wilkerson. |
| March 2015 | In an article for The Inlander, Dolezal wrote about Black women using inclusive pronouns 'we' and 'our', positioning herself within the Black community. |
| 2014 | Becomes president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington. |
| May 2014 | Rachel Dolezal applied for the chair position of the Office of the Police Ombudsman Commission in Spokane, identifying herself as having multiple ethnicities, including black. |
| 2012 | When her brother Ezra moved in with her, Dolezal told him that Spokane-area residents knew her as Black and asked him not to 'blow her cover'. |
| 2012 | Dolezal first claimed that Albert Wilkerson, a Black friend, was her real father, according to her uncle Dan Dolezal. |
| 2011 | Dolezal began darkening her skin and perming her hair, altering her appearance to present as a Black woman. |
| 2010 | Rachel Dolezal begins working as a part-time instructor in the Africana Education program at Eastern Washington University, teaching courses including 'The Black Woman's Struggle', 'African and African American Art History', 'African History', 'African American Culture', and 'Intro to Africana Studies'. |
| 2010 | Obtains legal guardianship of her 16-year-old brother Izaiah Dolezal with her parents' consent. |
| July 2010 | Rachel Dolezal stepped down from her position as education director of the Human Rights Institute in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, after serving in the role for two years. She claimed she was effectively forced to resign after the organization's board declined to hire her as executive director. |
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