Actress Ellie Kemper is speaking out after photos of her being crowned Queen of Love and Beauty at the Veiled Prophet Ball, a debutante ball organized by a group with a controversial past, surfaced over Memorial Day Weekend.
In an Instagram post, Kemper wrote that the Veiled Prophet Organization, the “century-old organization” that hosts the ball, “had an unquestionably racist, sexist and elitist past.”
"I was not aware of this history at the time, but ignorance is no excuse," she continued. "I was old enough to have educated myself before getting involved.”
Photos of Kemper at the event surfaced on social media over Memorial Day Weekend, and an archived article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote of Kemper being crowned “Queen of Love and Beauty” in 1999 while a freshman at Princeton University.
The group was co-founded in the late 1800s by Alonzo Slayback, a former Confederate officer, along with his brother, Charles.
An article from The Atlantic written in 2014, which detailed the history of the Veiled Prophet Organization, said that activities held by the organization were partially “a response to growing labor unrest in the city, much of it involving cooperation between white and Black workers.”
The group’s membership did not include any Black men until 1979, according to the Post-Dispatch, and also did not allow Jewish people until the late 70s. A number of protests have been staged against the organization throughout its history, including several demonstrations from civil rights activist Percy Green and the group ACTION (Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes).
Kemper wrote that she “unequivocally” deplores, denounces and rejects white supremacy, but acknowledged that “because of my face and my privilege, I am the beneficiary of a system that has dispensed unequal justice and unequal rewards.”
“I want to apologize to the people I've disappointed, and I promise that moving forward I will listen, continue to educated myself, and use my privilege in support of the better society I think we're capable of becoming,” she wrote.
The backlash against Kemper was swift after the photos surfaced, with some users going as far as to accuse the actress of being a “KKK Princess” — in part because of an image of a hooded figure known as the “Veiled Prophet,” which appears to wear dress similar to that of a hooded Klansman.
However, a fact-check from the website Snopes said that there is “no known affiliation between the VPO and the KKK.”
Thomas Spencer, a history professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville who authored the book “The St. Louis Veiled Prophet Celebration: Power on Parade, 1877-1995,” told the LA Times recently that the organization was known as a “lily-white group,” but “never found any close connections” between the group and the Ku Klux Klan.
In a statement to USA Today, the Veiled Prophet Organization said that they “absolutely reject racism and have never partnered or associated with any organization that harbors these beliefs.”
“Our organization believes in and promotes inclusion, diversity and equality for this region,” the group’s statement read, calling themselves an organization “dedicated to civic progress, economic contributions and charitable causes in St. Louis.”