Set of negatives by Clinton Wright of Debutante Ball, 1964

Photographer's notations: 67B-8 #2, Deb's Ball '64. 

In 1963, Barbara Kirkland came together with a group of eleven other like-minded female educators at Kit Carson Elementary School to form Les Femmes Douze (The Ladies Twelve) - an organization focused on encouraging and preparing young Black women to pursue higher education. The inaugural class of debutantes made their debut in 1964 at a ball themed “A Winter Wonderland” hosted in the Gold Room of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The cotillion style program allows debutantes to form sisterhoods, instill the value of community services, as well as provide scholarship opportunities.