The young men wore white tails and top hats. They carried canes. The young women performed deep curtseys in their white formal gowns.

When the 14 female and three male high school seniors presented to society earlier this month at the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Scholarship Cotillion all danced together, they looked like an assemblage from another time.

"I say 'cotillion' and people don't know what that is," said Tanisha Jones, a 17-year-old from Roosevelt High School. "I said, it's like a ball with a scholarship. It's our culture. It's traditional."  more >>