Ellie Kemper Blasted For Once Partaking In Extremely Questionable Ceremony Created By Former Confederate Soldier
The Atlantic article also noted that the founders sought to perpetuate the divide between Black and white workers during the city’s labor strikes in the late 1800s.
“Feeling the heat from industrial competitors to the North and labor unrest inside the city, the business elite of St. Louis decided in 1878 to double down on the static racial and economic power structure of the city,” Scott Beauchamp, author of the Atlantic article, The Mystery of St. Louis’s Veiled Prophet, wrote. “The Veiled Prophet Ball and Fair was a powerful symbol of that reassertion of control.”
Black and Jewish people were prohibited from participating in the ball until 1979, following protests from civil rights group Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes (ACTION).
After discovering that Kemper, who comes from a wealthy and influential Missouri family, was involved with the pageant, some Twitter users had a few words to describe their feelings on the controversy.
Ellie Kemper’s publicist checking their phone at the bbq today pic.twitter.com/3ctQ4PdAgz
— Yolanda Winston is a Vaccine Slut (@robinsparklezz) May 31, 2021