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

This is the perfect reaction, regarding the news about Ellie Kemper: pic.twitter.com/1HCv4nGIpf

— Charles Lee (@Goofyfan_Chuck) May 31, 2021

In the 2000 book, The St. Louis Veiled Prophet Celebration: Power on Parade, 1877-1995, historian Thomas Spencer mentioned that the Veiled Prophet Ball, which eventually grew into a celebratory, traditional parade called the VP Fair, became a way to exert dominance over the masses.

"Symbolically gaining control of the streets, the elites presented St. Louis history and American history by tracing the triumphs of great men – men who happened to be the Veiled Prophet members' ancestors," Spencer wrote. "The parade, therefore, was intended to awe the masses toward passivity with its symbolic show of power." 

ok i assumed the Ellie Kemper trend was about some new comedy i was never going to see, but pic.twitter.com/BtnLb2DUuZ

— violue (@violue) May 31, 2021

Dear yt ppl, y’all can calm down on the theatrics w the Ellie Kemper news when your meemaw was attending the pageants too. Leave the outrage to black ppl. Thanks. pic.twitter.com/jlhqZZmSIb

— monke in the mirror???????? (@bcardijacksun) May 31, 2021

“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,” CNN commentator and former White House aide, Keith Boykin wrote on Twitter. “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.”

Some also joked about the character Titus Burgess in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as being the only good aspect of the sitcom.

I watch Kimmy Schmidt everyday and now I’m hearing Ellie Kemper was a KKK Pageant Queen when she was 19 and had the NERVE to breathe the same air as Titus Burgess???? pic.twitter.com/bZYRH72Xxq

— baldhead heaux (@cxerralvnae) May 31, 2021

Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey trying to figure out how many weeks they have before they have to start talking about Ellie Kemper on their Office podcast pic.twitter.com/Vo5BpMpyfO

— Jess Goodwin (@thejessgoodwin) May 31, 2021

Ellie Kemper being a KKK pageant queen wasn’t on my 2021 bingo card pic.twitter.com/agzqEuVgXD

— EMOTIONAL TWAT???? (@squidneyevans) May 31, 2021

Ellie Kemper being a KKK princess is so random that I'm not even sure where to begin with the questions

— Zito (@_Zeets) May 31, 2021

“Black People in St.Louis grow up screaming to the top of our lungs about the Veil Prophet Society. Ever so often some one from out of town writes about it. Ellie Kemper aint nothing new. Every white elite family in the state of Missouri participates in this organization,” one user wrote.

Kemper has not yet addressed the controversy.