'Folk Lore Contest' held in Wilcox County, Alabama in 1948

Morton Rubin

“Folk Lore Contest Announced Here” was the big, bold headline on the front page of the Jan. 22, 1948 edition of The Wilcox Progressive Era.

The story that followed let readers know that Morton Rubin with the University of North Carolina’s Institute for Research in Social Sciences had launched a folklore contest in Wilcox County as part of a study of “Plantation Area Culture.” The contest was open to all students in the Wilcox County school system and aimed to secure samples of “existing folklore, sayings, superstitions, formulas, rhymes and jingles, ballads, etc. and also to discover the present role of folklore and magic in current living, science and religion.”

Students were asked not to use material that was already in print. “Local folklore is what is desired, so please don’t submit a lot of common materials, such as ‘walking under a ladder brings bad luck,’” Rubin said.

All entries had to be submitted before Leap Year Day, Feb. 29, to school principals or Rubin, who was living in Camden at the time. First prize was $5 with second place to receive $3. The two third-place finishers were to receive $1 each.

The March 11, 1948 edition of the newspaper announced the results of the contest. Over 100 students sent in “their lists of superstitions, rhymes and legends,” amounting to about 500 different pieces of folklore. Leading the fields were home remedies, parts of the body, death, animals and weather. “The principals and teachers of the schools cooperated with the project throughout, and people of the county lent a mighty hand in answering the questions of the children seeking folklore materials,” Rubin said.

Russell Dale Ervin of Alberta won first prize, and Carolyn Vick of Camden won second place. Third-place winners were Evelyn Moore of Darlington and Elizabeth Lee Findley of Gastonburg. Honorable mention winners were Sara Virginia Hudson, Anita Moss, Billy Parsons, Marguerite Lambert, Sara Jane Chambers, Roy Knight, Wanda Wilson, Aubrey Cameron and Louise Jones.

Rubin mentioned in both newspaper articles that he hoped to collect the best items of Wilcox County folklore into a mimeographed booklet that was to be given to all of the entrants, that is, about 100 students.

Rubin, who was born in Massachusetts in 1923, was an interesting man. He served in the Army as a clerk and French translator in Europe during World War II and later earned a degree in sociology from Boston University. He went on to earn a master’s degree and doctorate degree from the University of North Carolina.

According to his 2011 obituary, his doctoral studies at North Carolina involved him “immersing himself in a black community in Wilcox County, producing a study of segregation.” It was during this time that he held his folklore contest in Wilcox County. He earned his PhD in the spring of 1950 and a year later he published his dissertation as a book called, “Plantation County.”

In the end, I would really like to see a copy of the 1948 folklore booklet that Rubin put together with the help of Wilcox County students and educators. If anyone in the reading audience has a copy of this booklet that I could briefly examine, I would appreciate you getting in touch with me. Someone out there may have the only remaining copy of this booklet and it would be a shame for such an item to become lost to history.