As The Daily Dot noted, Ellie Kemper went viral on social media over Memorial Day Weekend after a Twitter user posted a photo of Kemper published by The St. Louis Dispatch in 1999. The photo featured Kemper, then a teenager, in a white gown after being crowned the 1999 "Queen of Love and Beauty" at a society ball held by a St. Louis-based group known as the Veiled Prophet Organization — one founded in 1878 by a group with white supremacist ties.
Per a 2014 article published by The Atlantic, the organization itself was founded by Charles Slayback, "a veteran Confederate soldier." Per The Daily Dot, "the ball involves a Veiled Prophet being chosen by 'a secret board of local elites,'" all of whom were traditionally adult, white men; the designated prophet responsible for crowning the ball's queen originally donned a white robe "similar" to those worn by the Ku Klux Klan, according to the outlet. According to the Veiled Prophet Organization's website, "the ball is private and by invitation only," with "approximately 2,000 guests" in attendance every year. As The St. Louis Dispatch reported in 2019, both the ball and the organization have been the subject of controversy since the 1970s over "allegations of racism," and only began allowing Black men to join as members in 1979.
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