Actress Ellie Kemper is being raked over the social media equivalent of the coals for winning a 1999 pageant sponsored by a St. Louis-based organization that has been accused of denying membership to the city’s Black and Jewish populations.
What To Know: Kemper was a 19-year-old Princeton University student when she was presented as a debutante at the 1999 Veiled Prophet Ball, an annual event sponsored by the Veiled Prophet Organization. During the ball, Kemper was named the Veiled Prophet Queen of Love and Beauty.
According to a 2014 article in The Atlantic, the Veiled Prophet Organization was founded as a secret society in 1878 by Charles Slayback, a veteran of the Confederate military who gained post-Civil War prominence as a grain industry executive.
The organization also coordinated a parade and fair modeled after New Orleans’ Mardi Gras festivities. In addition to the ball’s “queen,” a St. Louis leader in the corporate or public sector wears a mask as the “veiled prophet” of the event, with his identity kept secret from the attendees.
The Veiled Prophet Organization was created in response to the rise of organized labor, which its founders saw as a threat to their corporate power. Over the years, it avoided a political message and dropped its exclusionist membership policies in 1979, 20 years before Kemper was involved in the ball.
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What’s Happening Now: It's unclear why Kemper, who became prominent for her roles in the television series “The Office” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmitt,” is now being called to task on social media for an event from 22 years ago, nor is it obvious why the seven-year-old article from The Atlantic has become relevant again, especially since it never mentions Kemper. Nonetheless, the subject has been trending on Twitter TWTR.
The Root, a Black-focused digital media outlet, tweeted, “Ellie Kemper, Who Appeared on TV Show That Actually Starred Tituss Burgess Outed as Former 'KKK Princess' on Twitter.” Many Twitter users also referenced the KKK in their comments.
The Atlantic article included an illustration of the first Veiled Prophet from 1878 that depicted a white-robed figure who bore more than a passing resemblance to Ku Klux Klan’s fashion sense. However, the article did not cite any ties between the organization and the domestic terror group, nor has the organization ever been charged with hate crimes.
CNN commentator Keith Boykin looked beyond the actress to call out the Veiled Prophet Organization’s place in St. Louis history.
“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,” he tweeted. “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.”
Celebrity gossip columnist Perez Hilton expressed indignation, tweeting, “What in the WHAT??? Ellie Kemper needs to make a statement about this.”
As of this writing, Kemper has not publicly addressed the issue.
Others came to Kemper’s defense. Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted, “There is not a single iota of evidence that Ellie Kemper is racist. So naturally, Twitter is trending her and blue checks are calling her a ‘KKK princess.’ What absolute garbage.”
Award-winning novelist James D.F. Hannah riffed on the trending subject by tweeting, “‘Ellie Kemper was the debutante at a white fascist ball’ is not the word salad I expected coming off a three-day weekend, people.”
And Twitter user Pfizer Shawty was baffled by the attention given to the subject, tweeting, “Who Tf Is Ellie Kemper?”
(Photo of Ellie Kemper at the 2016 Emmy Awards courtesy of WEBN-TV / Flickr Creative Commons.)
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