Actress Ellie Kemper, most notable for her role as Erin Hannon on The Office and as Kimmy Schmidt in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is facing fierce backlash after a photo of her partaking in a controversial pageant resurfaced.

The archived St.Louis-Dispatch photo shows a 19-year-old Kemper smiling as she’s crowned the 1999 “Veiled Prophet Queen of Love and Beauty.”

So was no one gonna tell me Ellie kemper aka kimmy Schmidt was crowned KKK queen in 1999 pic.twitter.com/QdHJ6wGZGv

— charlie (@dianahungerr) May 31, 2021

The ball, known as The Veil Prophet Ball, was organized by the Veiled Prophet Organization, a group created in 1878 by mostly wealthy, white elites and spearheaded by former Confederate cavalrymen Charles and Alonzo Slayback, according to a 2014 Atlantic article.

Though not blatantly stated, the ritualistic pageant resembles an alignment with the Ku Klux Klan, specifically because of the white veil and white robe that is worn by a secret member called the Veiled Prophet. In the ceremony, a daughter of one of the group's members is crowned queen by the inconspicuous affiliate.

st.louis-missouri

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