Worth Long (1936–2025)

Folklorist Worth Long died on May 8, 2025 in Atlanta, GA at the age of eighty-nine.

Worth was born and raised in Durham, NC. He attended Philander Smith College in Little Rock, AR in 1962, where he quickly rose as a leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Before college, Long had spent two years in the Air Force in Korea and Japan, where he became aware of “folklore.” His passion for oral history was so strong that when he married in 1959, he chose a tape recorder rather than a wedding ring.

While working for SNCC, Worth simultaneously became involved in documenting and presenting the folk music of the civil rights movement at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and other heritage festivals. At the Smithsonian, he met documentary photographer Roland Freeman, and the two forged a formidable partnership. Their visual and aural records are essential for understanding African American cultural life. Their pioneering work in the early 1970s as co-directors of the Smithsonian’s Mississippi Folklife Project, among book publications and exhibition, led to the global recognition of African American improvisational quilting traditions. He also helped found the Mississippi Delta Blues Festival and had worked on many festivals, including cultural events for the Knoxville World’s Fair and the Olympics in Atlanta.

Worth is survived by his children Ramona and Will.

Read more about his life at the SNCC and his shared legacy with Roland Freeman.