LOS ANGELES: A US civil rights activist resigned Monday from a post at the leading African-American advocacy group amid allegations she is white but has masqueraded for years as being black.

Rachel Dolezal’s resignation from her job as president of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People came as her parents, who are white and says she is too, urged her to seek counseling.

The Washington state chapter of the NAACP posted Dolezal’s resignation letter on its Facebook page.

In it, she writes that her commitment to the “racial and social justice movement” is undiminished but that “the dialogue has unexpectedly shifted internationally to my personal identity in the context of defining race and ethnicity.”

Dolezal, 37, built a career as an activist in the black community of Spokane.

She rose to become the president of the city’s branch of the NAACP and served as an independent mediator for the city’s police force.

Neither position required that she be black, but media reports said Dolezal identified herself in application forms and in various public appearances and writings as black.