THE VEILED PROPHET: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggles for St.Louis by Devin Thomas O'Shea, Haymarket Books 6/26

 THE VEILED PROPHET:  Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggles for St. Louis by DEVIN THOMAS O'SHEA. (Haymarket Books, 6/26)

                                    


What was the Veiled Prophet Society? And why might we care about a secret society (now defunct) founded a century and a half ago in St. Louis? Devin Thomas O'Shea's excellent and little-known history, THE VEILED PROPHET: Secret Societies, white supremacy, and the struggle for St. Louis clarifies how this "prestige brokerage" strongly affected U.S. History and modern political structures. 

In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, when Gen Lee surrendered at Appomattox, disillusioned Confederate soldiers, including future Veiled Profit founder, Alonzo Slayback, went looting in Mexico. Their loss of the Southern way of life included property both human and geographical. Slayback and others sought alternatives to loss. He found a Kipling poem infused with a mysterious "Orientalism." Like the Klan's "Wizard," the "Veiled Prophet" was a disguise. O'Shea explains its purpose. "It was a way for a white person during Reconstruction, to cover their face-- in order to mark themselves above the law and assert a right to Plantation violence." 

The Veiled Prophet movement grew and St. Louis, the Gateway to the West, was entangled in white supremacy, as were its institutions, corporate estates and U.S. Presidents. The Veiled Prophet group became involved with Heads of State, University Chancellors, Senators, and CEOs. Vice Presidents, and Circuit judges have been members of The Prophet's Court. Some Veiled Prophets ended up in the White House. Others were sent to Saigon. Some were shot by newspaper editors, others became directors of the CIA. Some owned every lead mine in the Midwest, in an alliance of business and political needs. The Veiled Prophet Club was a place where members could get business done. Socializing was part of that process.  

As time went on, some Veiled Profits seemed cosmopolitan, liberal in attitude. THE VEILED PROPHET shows how the organization was able to put members into the highest offices of our society. Often the bigotry was perceived as "understated." Some looked to the lore of the organization evolved from Kipling's reference to a benevolent deity, kind of a father figure with a veiled face. Besides Club meetings for business, there were elections of new VPs from the membership. They were honored at annual parades with an elaborate coronation of the new VPs and the VP "court." This included a Queen of Love and Beauty (often a daughter of an esteemed member.) 

In defending the VP society, spokespersons have stated that some "elites" have always wanted to do what's right for the people. Yet the altruism is a disguise, since the major reason for the VP organization was the desire of white men to own other human beings and their sense of loss, especially after the Emancipation Proclamation. The capitalism of Reconstruction formed the wage labor system. Industrialism wished to command armies of labor ruled with an "iron fist." Slayback was infuriated by railroad strikes, a further reason for the founding of the Veiled Prophet organization. Mississippi River capitalism resurrected the slave power lost through role-playing. Twice a year, they played the plantation authority through city-wide parades and debutante balls. 

The VP event was a representation of oppression and the desire for control. With a hatred of Blacks and rage for organized labor, it was a combination of Klu Kluxer and Capitalist. It reached a zenith in the Cold War era but declined in neoliberal times. With the North and South distinction less prominent in the U.S. and cities like St. Louis abandoned by the Upper Class, VP parades were mostly filled with Black people, who turned a jaundiced eye on this openly supremacist organization's parade for the "public." 

 In 1972, the VP was dramatically unveiled by a Civil Rights activist onstage at a televised event.  While that exposure spelled the end of the organization's public events, Ferguson gives a sobering perspective. With the flight to the suburbs of White people, soon followed by Black suburban people, the form of policing arguably resembles the brutality of plantation law enforcement.  

This rare history of THE VEILED PROPHET reveals how elite supremacy organizations have secretly ruled in the development and government of our United States. The post WW2 commitment to a benign world government was undercut by totalitarianism before the recent U.S. defection. When I think of a public manifestation of the Veiled Prophet in these times, I see AI's mechanical face.    

But egalitarian ideas, altruism are also alive in international agreements to preserve the environment, nature and life both in human and other forms. Also persistent are actions to engender a viable way of life for all peoples. Perhaps our current "greed is good" moment in the United States is finding its end. 

S.W.




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