Toting the Lead Row: Ruby Pickens Tartt, Alabama Folklorist

Preserving voices from the back roads―Ruby Pickens Tartt and the folklore of Alabama’s Black Belt.

“You recall the expression ‘toting the lead row’, don’t you? In chopping cotton or corn there is always a leader, one who can chop the fastest of them all. When he finishes his row, he goes back and helps the other choppers finish theirs. The one who totes the lead row takes the lead place in the next row.”―Ruby Pickens Tartt

Toting the Lead Row is a powerful biographical and cultural tribute to Ruby Pickens Tartt, a white woman from Alabama’s Black Belt who devoted her life to preserving the oral traditions of rural Black communities. Born in 1880 in Livingston, Alabama, Tartt witnessed nearly a century of social transformation and made it her mission to document the songs, stories, and life histories of her African American neighbors. She believed that the soul of Sumter County resided not in its institutions, but in its cabins, fields, and voices.

During the Great Depression, Tartt worked with the Federal Writers’ Project, collaborating with renowned folklorists such as Carl Carmer and John Lomax. Her home became a hub for cultural preservation, attracting scholars and artists who recognized the depth of her fieldwork. The book’s title refers to a Southern agricultural phrase―“toting the lead row”―symbolizing leadership and support, a role Tartt embodied in her efforts to elevate the voices of those often overlooked.

This volume is divided into two parts: the first offers a detailed biography of Tartt and her work with the WPA, while the second presents a curated selection of her collected writings, including 18 life histories and 12 slave narratives. Through these stories, Tartt preserved a vital piece of Southern history and gave voice to generations whose experiences might otherwise have been lost.

Toting the Lead Row is both a celebration of a remarkable woman and a vital contribution to the study of folklore, race, and Southern identity.

Virginia Pounds Brown and Laurella Owens are freelance writers.