CARY, N.C. (AP) " Former Washington state NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal, who was criticized last year for passing herself off as black, has been tapped to speak at a North Carolina Martin Luther King Day celebration in January. The Raleigh News & Observer reports (http://bit.ly/2duILI5 ) the theme of the MLK Dreamfest Celebration in Cary, North Carolina, "Healing Race Relations through Conversation and Participation." Event organizer Al Cohen tells the newspaper that Dolezal was "depicted as a major villain through media because of her preference of racial identity." He says Dolezal committed no crime, adding that "She only had an affinity for a group of people, and she served her community well." Dolezal has acknowledged that she is "Caucasian biologically," but says she identifies as black.

Source: New Zealand Herald October 06, 2016 12:11 UTC