There were several founding members of the organization who were native Southerners, but I found no evidence they had ever been Klansmen. However, while echoing the substance of O’Shea’s remark, Spencer asserted that he “never found any close connections between the two organizations. Louis civil rights activist Percy Green of ACTION (Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes), a since-disbanded organization that was a longtime thorn in VP’s side, said, “ACTION’s view of the white Veiled Prophet as a Ku Klux Klan organization by another name.” “The daughters are doing it because their dad wants them to do so, and it’s a way to honor their father.”Įllie Kemper of ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ sees the comedy lightĮllie Kemper is surprisingly small and compact, and surprisingly red-haired. “Here’s how I think about it: It’s a debutante ball that has existed for a long time,” said Spencer, likening it to other debutante balls in St. Kemper was honored in 1999, 20 years after VP finally began admitting Black members her crowning was covered by local newspapers. At the ball, the disguised member serving as that year’s Veiled Prophet crowns that year’s Queen of Love and Beauty. The ball has been part of the organization’s lavish celebrations, which have included parades televised to millions.
“The VP was armed, and there was an executioner’s block on the float, etc.” What is the Veiled Prophet Ball? “The first parade has some pretty overt racial symbolism and intimidation,” Spencer told The Times in an interview Tuesday. Spencer says VP was intended to maintain the social and economic order desired by “elites” in the late 1870s, creating a mythology involving a hooded figure called the “Veiled Prophet.” The image of the initial Veiled Prophet strikingly resembles classic depictions of Klansmen in white hoods.