In 1999, the actress was crowned queen of the Veiled Prophet Ball, whose organizers banned Black and Jewish members<\/b>
\nTwitter users were divided after a photo of actress Ellie Kemper being crowned the 1999 Queen of Love and Beauty at St. Louis\u2019 Veiled Prophet Ball resurfaced According to a 2014 article in The Atlantic, the event\u2019s organizers \u201cemphasized the existing power structure\u201d and banned Black and Jewish members. The social media divide started with a tweet: \u201cSo was no one gonna tell me Ellie Kemper aka Kimmy Schmidt was crowned KKK queen in 1999?\u201d asked one user, posting an old newspaper photo of the actress in a white gown. The Veiled Prophet Ball has no known ties to the KKK, to be clear, although it has been targeted by Black Lives Matter in the past for what organizers see as its upholding of power structures in the area. The event, which is similar to a debutante ball in which parents present their children to society, has been around since the late 1870s and had an exclusionary past, according to the Atlantic piece. \u201cCreated in 1878 by white male community leaders, the Mystic Order of the Veiled Prophet of the Enchanted Realm sought to recreate the Mardi Gras type of community-wide celebration,\u201d says St. Louis\u2019 own government website of the event, which is still held today. \u201cThe traditional VP celebration has represented for St. Louisans a perceived link between different components of the community in a holiday celebration, while also reinforcing the notion of a benevolent cultural elite.\u201d Clearly, the event is a historic and controversial one. The Queen of Love and Beauty is selected each year from among debutantes who received invitations to the ball, which traditionally excluded non-white attendees. Kemper was a 19-year-old student at Princeton when she was crowned the ball\u2019s 105th queen. On Twitter Sunday night, this historical context was whittled down until Kemper was branded a \u201cKKK princess.\u201d \u201cThe Ellie Kemper thing is hilarious but you people don\u2019t really think she\u2019s like, a secret Nazi agent and not just from some dumb ass town where they make you square dance right?\u201d wondered comedian Jake Flores. \u201cEllie Kemper was in a tv show called \u2018The Office\u2019 and do you know who else had an office? Hitler,\u201d remarked another user with sarcasm. Ben Shapiro blasted the replies, tweeting, \u201cThere is not a single iota of evidence that Ellie Kemper is racist. So naturally, Twitter is trending her and blue checks are calling her a \u201cKKK princess.\u2019 What absolute garbage.\u201d Others used the opportunity to make a broader point about the entertainment industry: \u201cRegardless of whether Ellie Kemper was in the KKK or whatever, it\u2019s unethical to be a movie actor from a rich family. When you see someone who\u2019s made it in Hollywood you assume they spent time waiting tables & playing extras in laxative commercials to make ends meet.\u201d Kemper\u2019s reps have not responded to TheWrap\u2019s request for comment. The \u201cUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt\u201d actress continued to trend on the microblogging site well into Tuesday morning, though she made no public statement.<\/p>\n