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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.