Prophetess Gown

[Shinyoung Gedris]

Themovie is the story of a local prophetess named Ajoke, who made a prediction about a football match. Her prediction led to a chain of events which was beyond her control and set her life in danger. She had to enlist the help of her sister to save her from the impending danger.

Garbed in a flowing white garment similar to Celestial Church of Christ worshippers, she was chauffeur driven to the venue in her new G-wagon which she acquired earlier this year. Immediately she stepped out of her ride, she was welcomed by her entourage who were all dressed in white flowing gowns just like her. They all danced majestically to the red carpet to enjoy and catch fun at the event.

Toyin Abraham and her husband, Kolawole Ajeyemi, gave us some couple goals at the movie premiere. Though they both got to the venue separately but immediately Toyin sighted her husband, she left the red carpet to give him a warm welcome and a hot kiss. They were inseparable after that. Kolawole was garbed in a purple attire that had a cape at the back. They both rocked the movie premiere together till the end.

The Fespris production boss also made a grand entrance at the movie premiere to honour Toyin Abraham who is like a younger sister to her. The screen diva has never disappointed when it comes to looking glamorous and elegant to events. She came to the venue in her sexy prophetess inspired attire and she was the cynosure of all eyes. Her elegant ensemble was made by serial entrepreneur and fashion goddess, Toyin Lawani.

Beautiful damsels numbering up to ten were on ground to welcome and usher guests to the red carpet and their seats during the movie premiere. The ladies also followed the dress code to the letter. They wore white flowing gowns with two detachable wings. They were at the beck and call of guests who needed their attention. Their appearance added spice to the event.

The parade and ball were organized and funded by the Veiled Prophet Organization, an all-male[1][2] secret society[1][3][4] founded in 1878 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.[7]

Occasionally, unions would stage events intended to mock the pretensions of the VP Ball.[8] The leading socialist and working-class newspaper, St. Louis Labor, "wrote negatively" about the VP event and its organizers between the early 1900s and 1930.[9]

In 1995, the name of the riverfront celebration was changed to Fair Saint Louis, though the street procession was still called Veiled Prophet Parade. The date was fixed for Independence Day.[10] It continued to be funded by the Veiled Prophet Organization.[11][12]

In 2003, the organization created a Community Service Initiative, through which members participate in a wide variety of projects in and around the city of St. Louis.[13] In 2016, it secured a trademark for the name America's Birthday Parade.[14]

More recently, the event was protested by Black Lives Matter supporters, as well as the St. Louis-based group Missourians Organized for Reform and Empowerment, which linked St. Louis's wealthiest one percent to the VP organization.[citation needed]

In 2021, 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."[15][16] The Veiled Prophet was replaced with Archibald the bald eagle.

Before World War II, the African-American community in St. Louis crowned its own "Veiled Prophet Queen," who included Ernestine Steele in 1939 and Blanche Vashon (later Sinkler), Georgia Williams, and Evelyn Hilliard. A 1940 newspaper column said that for years the official VP Parade had drawn

many persons, white and colored, to the city . . . [and that] Years ago there was a dance for the colored citizenry on that night, but that affair was long discontinued. Five years ago, Mrs. Zenobia Shoulders Johnson, one of the city's most active church and civic workers, conceived the idea of a style show which would culminate in the crowning of the "Veiled Prophet's Queen," someone representative of real St. Louis culture and society, much in the same manner of the original event. The idea caught fire, and from the first night, overflow crowds have witnessed the event at St. James [ A.M.E. ] Church. And, in addition, the idea became so popular that this year there are fully half a dozen similar projects as conceived by Mrs. Johnson being held this week by various other racial groups.[17]

Walter W. Witte, rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, set forth the first widely circulated postwar opposition to the VP ball in a letter printed in the Post-Dispatch on September 30, 1966. He wrote:[18]

. . . I recall my fascination some 10 years ago when I was told that St. Louis had a Veiled Prophet Parade. I was new to the city then and I presumed that this gala event must be some climactic community celebration, perhaps historical in nature. Then to discover that this was the yearly feast of the rich, culminating in a "coming out" ball at the municipal auditorium . . . was indeed a disappointment. Since then disappointment has given place to disgust. The spectacle of the wealthy daring to parade through the neighborhoods or near neighborhoods of the poor is outrageous.

And the ritual. Is it merely "cute," or are we witnessing the honest to God cult of the affluent with its prophets, queens, attending angels, heavenly courts taken seriously and paid for dearly by the educated business and professional men of the community? . . . .

Could it be turned into a genuine community event? I have an idea. If the powers would contact me, I have several outstandingly beautiful candidates in my parish for the Queen of Love and Beauty. Mind you, these candidates are not Mary Institute graduates nor are they currently attending Wellesley, Smith, or Vassar, nor are they likely to be. But they would, indeed, add beauty. Then again they would probably be disqualified. They suffer from one serious limitation. They are black.

Protests against the VP Parade began in 1966 after police shot a black robbery suspect and Percy Green, head of the Action Council to Improve Opportunities for Negroes (ACTION) passed out leaflets urging that the annual VP parade be "stopped" in response to the killing, calling it "the personification of St. Louis racism and white supremacy."[19]

The next year, ACTION scheduled a "City Dwellers Week" to coincide with Veiled Prophet activities. It was code named Target 84, a reference to the Prophet's 84th visit. The aim was to force an end to the VP, which William L. Matheus said was "a symbol of racial and economic oppression."[20]

On September 30, 1967, ACTION sponsored a "Black Veiled Prophet Ball" in parody of the VP Ball, the latter which was said to be fostering "racial discrimination and segregation."[21] The group planned the selection of a Queen of Human Justice, who would be chosen according to the number of tickets sold on her behalf.[22]

On October 1, 1967, a "small group of marchers," led by Patrick Dougherty, a St. Louis University professor, contended in the suburb of Clayton, Missouri, that the VP Ball and Parade were "offensive to the Negro community" and should be transformed into a children's event.[23]

The next weekend, some fifty demonstrators were in a sidewalk protest across the street from the VP Ball in Kiel Auditorium. Leaders, who had no tickets, demanded entry to the hall, and on October 6 three of them were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace and failure to obey the commands of a police officer; they were released on bond. They were Precious Barnes, in regalia as the "Black Veiled Prophet," Esther Davis, who was the Queen of Human Justice, and Witte.[24][25][26]Journalists said the newspeople were shoved and jostled by police and that some officers held hats and hands in front of cameras to prevent photos.[27] Ron Gould, an 18-year-old seminary student, said he took a photo of a policeman beating a black woman, and another officer smashed his camera with a baton, then stepped on the exposed film. He later filed a complaint against the police department, which ruled he had no case.[28][29] (Charges against Barnes, Davis, and Witte were dropped on January 23, 1968, because of insufficient evidence.)[30]

The next day, Barbara Torrence, Ruth Poland, and Mary Ann Kerstetter were arrested for lying in the street in front of the Veiled Prophet Parade in protest of alleged racial discrimination. They were sentenced to thirty days in jail for resisting arrest but were placed on probation for a year.[31]

In October 1967 Bishop George L. Cadigan asked Witte and William Matheus, St. Stephens Church curator, to resign their positions because of "misunderstandings about procedural matters and the seeming inability of Mr. Witte to relate to the program of the diocese."[32] The activities of the two in demonstrations, particularly against the Veiled Prophet Ball, had "incurred the wrath of many Episcopal laymen," a newspaper report said.[26]

Witte said he and Matheus regarded the annual VP ceremonies as symbols of social bigotry and economic discrimination.[26] Cadigan responded that he "holds no brief for the Veiled Prophet Ball and Parade, and it may well be a serious affront to the nonaffluent members of the St. Louis community," but, he said, the two clergymen "vastly overrated" the VP's significance, devoting "great energy, but little skill, in attacking it."[33]

In 1968, ACTION threatened to stage protests against musician Count Basie unless he canceled an agreement to play in the VP Parade, whose theme that year was "Music for Everyone." Basie agreed on September 25 to withdraw, "for personal reasons."[34]

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