Actress Ellie Kemper facing backlash after photos surface of her as Queen of ‘Veiled Prophet Ball’
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The 41-year-old actress’ involvement in the ball, which has long been accused of being racist, elitist and exclusionary, became a trending topic on Twitter this week
Author of the article:
Emma Sandri 
Actress Ellie Kemper attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 11, 2015 in California. Photo by Jason Merritt /Getty Images
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Twenty-year-old photos of actress Ellie Kemper, best known for her roles in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and The Office, resurfaced this week, generating controversy over her participating in an organization that has historically excluded Black and Jewish Americans.
In 1999, Kemper was crowned the “Queen of Love and Beauty” at a debutante ball organized by the Veiled Prophet Organization in St. Louis, Missouri.
According to the 20-year-old St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, the then-19-year-old Kemper had become the “105th young woman to be so honored by the Veiled Prophet Organization,” in a white and satin gown from Saks Fifth Avenue. The newspaper also noted that Kemper, who was a Princeton student, belongs to a wealthy and influential banking family from the city.
The now 41-year-old actress’ involvement in the ball, which has long been accused of being racist, elitist and exclusionary, quickly became a trending topic on Twitter, with some users even accusing her of being a “KKK princess.”
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While there is no known link between the Veiled Prophet Organization and the Klu Klux Klan, the ball has been “targeted” by activists before, reports The Wrap, who contend that the organization is responsible for upholding and profiting from existing power structures.
“While the Veiled Prophet no longer appears with (a) shotgun and pistol in hand, the message — and the organization’s membership’s complicity in racial and economic violence in St. Louis — remains clear,” wrote now-shuttered feminist blog Feministing.com.
Kemper has yet to respond to the online backlash.
A controversial history
According to a 2014 article from The Atlantic, the Veiled Prophet Organization was founded in the 1870s when a former Confederate cavalryman and grain executive named Charles Slayback called a meeting with white, male business and civic leaders. His intention was to form a secret society, which blended the “pomp and ritual” of Mardi Gras with “the symbolism used by Irish poet Thomas Moore.”
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Both Slayback and the St. Louis elite created the myth of the “Veiled Prophet of Khorassan” — a mystic traveller who had made the Missouri city his base of operations.
Every year, a person is chosen by a secret board of local elites to anonymously be the Veiled Prophet, and to choose a Queen of Love and Beauty from among the Veiled Prophet Ball’s attendees.
The prophet wears a lace face covering and a white robe, which shields their identity.
In his book “The St. Louis Veiled Prophet Celebration: Power on Parade,” Historian Thomas Spencer said that the primary goal of Veiled Prophet events was to “take back the stage from populist demands for social and economic justice” and to reinforce the status quo.
“To underline the message of class and race hegemony, the image of the first Veiled Prophet is armed with a shotgun and pistol,” wrote Scott Beauchamp for the Atlantic in 2014.
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The Veiled Prophet Organization
While Beauchamps noted that the Veiled Prophet bore a striking resemblance to a Klu Klux Klansman, in 2018, a lecturer for the University of North Carolina wrote that the image of the so-called prophet actually predates that of the KKK — which only started wearing its robes and hoods in the early 1900s.
The Veiled Prophet Organization had also barred Black and Jewish people from joining it for “many years,” and had only allowed Black members to join in 1979 — 15 years after the Civil Right Act took effect.
In the lead up to the change, a local social justice group called ACTION had regularly picketed the ball for excluding people of colour, and even unmasked the 1972 prophet — the then-vice president of Monsanto, a agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology company best known for its herbicide Roundup.
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In an attempt to rebrand itself, the Veiled Prophet Parade changed its name to “America’s Biggest Birthday Parade,” reported USA TODAY, although the ball and organization have both kept their original names.
In a statement to USA TODAY, the Veiled Prophet Organization described itself as a “dedicated to civic progress, economic contributions and charitable causes in St. Louis.”
“Our organization believes in and promotes inclusion, diversity and equality for this region,” the statement read. “We absolutely reject racism and have never partnered or associated with any organization that harbors these beliefs.”
In a tweet, journalist Keith Boykin commented on the controversy surrounding Kemper, saying: “Growing up in St. Louis in the 1970s and 1980, I remember The Veiled Prophet Fair very well. I was always told it was only for white people. The racial segregation was so normalized that people were just expected to know their place.”
I don’t know much about Ellie Kemper, but growing up in St. Louis in the 1970s and 1980, I remember The Veiled Prophet Fair very well. I was always told it was only for white people. The racial segregation was so normalized that people were just expected to know their place. pic.twitter.com/3pyhxsG2LX
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) June 1, 2021 Advertisement
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“Many things have changed since 1878, but the Veiled Prophet Organization will always continue its largest gift to the community: a spectacular parade that has become one of St. Louis’ most enduring family traditions,” stated the organization on its parade website.
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