Unveiling The Prophet

The actor Ellie Kemper will be well known to fans of The Office and The Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt. She was recently the center of a social media storm. It turns out that she was the “Queen of Love and Beauty” at the annual Veiled Prophet Ball in St. Louis in 1999. This is a high-end formal event similar to a debutante’s ball. When the racist and sexist history of this event was publicized, Kemper quickly issued a full apology in an Instagram statement.

So far, all of this will seem pretty familiar territory to those who have been following what the right wing call the “Culture Wars” or what we see as a very welcome, Black Lives Matter created, new attention to all manifestations of racism. However, the Veiled Prophet Ball(VPB) is much more than the typical southern debutantes’ cotillion. The VBP has its origins in the ruling class reaction to a highlight of the US class struggle- the 1877 St. Louis General Strike.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

ThePanic of 1873 marked the start of a downturn in the US economy. The railroads were one of the main casualties. Many railroad owners wished to reduce freight rates to pull customers away from other lines. This created a dilemma for the owners: how to reduce rates while maintaining profits? It didn’t take long for them to come up with a solution—cut workers’ wages. Many of the main lines cut wages from 10% to 20% in July1877. This was the final straw for already impoverished rail workers.They refused to accept the cuts and the Great 1877 Railroad Strike had begun. There were large and militant strikes across the country. St. Louis was one of the high points of this process.

The “reign of the rabble”

A number of features marked the strike in St. Louis. First, the strikers not only stopped work on the railroads, but actively reached out to the rest of the working class. This meant that the whole town was closed down, not just the railroads. It was truly a general strike with retail, granaries, banks and breweries closed. Secondly, there were elements of workers’ control. At times, the workers permitted passenger and animal feed trains to move. They weren’t just on strike—they were beginning to control the town. Thirdly, there was a constant hubbub of working-class meetings and rallies, with the Marxists of the Workingmen’s Party at center stage. Finally, there were important displays of multiracial working class unity. A famous incident occurred at one of the rallies. A Black leader of the levee and steamboat workers called to the large crowd of workers, “Will you stand with us regardless of color?” The workers answered with a resounding, “We will!”

The ruling class in St. Louis could not tolerate this situation, which one of them described as “the reign of the rabble.” On July 27, a mob of vigilantes and police attacked the union headquarters at Schuler’s Hall. This was the start of a wave of repression against the workers. Federal troops regained control of the situation. The workers were “shot back to work.”

The Veiled Prophet’s Ball

The movers and shakers of the St. Louis ruling class wished to see no repeat of this proletarian insurgency. The rich needed to rally their forces. In this situation, former Confederate and grain magnate Charles Slayback called a meeting to create the Veiled Prophets Ball. Slayback wanted an event that would show power and inspire fear, that would “shock and awe.”A dazzling social event would showcase wealth and self-confidence.

But the pomp and glitz would be accompanied by a show of force. This becomes clear when one looks at a drawing of the Prophet taken from the October 6, 1878 copy of The Missouri Republican. The Prophet is dressed in regalia similar to a Ku Klux Klan knight. He has a pistol in one hand and a rifle in the other. A second rifle is within quick reach. The caption removes any ambiguity: “It will be readily observed from the accoutrements of the Prophet that the procession is not likely to be stopped by ‘street cars’ or anything else.” Street cars are their term for working-class demonstrations.

Atlantic Magazine writer Scott Beauchamp perfectly summed up the message that the Ball’s organizers wished to send out. “We, the bankers and businessmen, have a monopoly on violence and wealth. We are grand and mysterious, and also to be feared.”

This peculiar combination of an opening night at the Metropolitan Opera and a cross burning is what makes the VPB unusual. A heavy hitter in the city elite is chosen to be the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan. He sits, fully veiled, on a throne-like chair. He gives a major gift, such as a pearl necklace, to the Queen of Peace and Beauty. His identity is kept secret. Only two Prophets have ever been publicly revealed. The 1878 Prophet was St. Louis Police Commissioner John G. Priest, who had led the previous year’s assault on the strikers. We know the identity of the 1972 Prophet due the actions of a brave radical. She managed to get into the ball and dramatically tore the Prophet’s veil off, revealing Monsanto Company Executive Vice President Tom K. Smith!

This, then, is the example of ruling class arrogance and class hatred that Ellie Kemper was involved with. It’s good that she apologized. It will be even better when American workers follow the examples of the 1877 strikers that the Prophets hated so much.