Louis, Missouri , over which a mythical figure called the Veiled Prophet presided. The parade and ball were organized and funded by the Veiled Prophet Organization, an all-male [ 1 ] [ 2 ] anonymous society [ 1 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] founded in by prominent St. Louisans, a highly select group culled from the area's business, civic and governmental leaders.
The organization chooses a member to be a Veiled Prophet who conducts meetings and oversees activities. Historian Thomas Spencer considered that the VP parade was created in part to displace the parades regularly held by the trade unions , and believes that the event generally revealed rather than soothed class conflicts. Louis Labor , "wrote negatively" about the VP event and its organizers between the early s and In , the name of the riverfront celebration was changed to Fair Saint Louis , though the street procession was still called Veiled Prophet Parade.
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The date was fixed for Independence Day. In , the organization created a Community Service Initiative, through which members participate in a wide variety of projects in and around the city of St. More recently, the event was protested by Black Lives Matter supporters, as well as the St. Louis's wealthiest one percent to the VP organization. In , the "Veiled Prophet Parade" was replaced by the "American Birthday Parade" as to assuage concerns that the pageant was "a symbol of wealth, power, and to some racism.
In early , the society removed the "Veiled Prophet" figurehead in an effort to move away from its troubled history. It was revealed that the Veiled Prophet was replaced with a new figurehead called the "Grand Oracle".
This figure lacks the veil of the original VP, but instead has a golden mask and long beard. In addition, the mythological backstory behind the Veiled Prophet has been changed from the fictional kingdom of Khorasan to Lemuria. A newspaper column said that for years the official VP Parade had drawn.
