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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Questions raised about NAACP hate mail

Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, poses in her home with a .44 caliber revolver she owns to protect her family and herself. A package containing racist content directed at her was delivered to the NAACP’s post office box last week. (Colin Mulvany)
Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, poses in her home with a .44 caliber revolver she owns to protect her family and herself. A package containing racist content directed at her was delivered to the NAACP’s post office box last week. (Colin Mulvany)

SPOKANE, Wash. - A police report raises questions about reports of threatening hate mail sent to Spokane's NAACP president. Major Crimes detectives have concluded that the mail was never processed, despite showing up in the organization's post office box.

Rachel Dolezal, president of Spokane's NAACP chapter, said she found an envelope containing threatening mail in the post office box on North Monroe in February. The 20 pages of notes included pictures and lynchings and words like "war pig."

"I was immediately struck by guns pointed towards me," Dolezal told KXLY of the pictures in February.

Spokane Police took possession of the envelope and dusted for fingerprints. Investigators then went back to the Rosewood post office where the NAACP gets its mail in a locked box.

Postal workers told detectives the envelope had not been canceled, time stamped or imprinted with the bar code that directs mail to the right destination. According to the police report, the postal inspector told detectives, "The only way this letter could have ended up in this P.O. box would be if it was placed there by someone with a key to that box or a USPS employee." Full story.Jeff Humphrey, KXLY



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.