One Of The Greatest Scourges Of The Last Century Was Polio

By Editor | April 24, 2024 |

Guest Column
Chris Goodwin works in public history in Jackson. His mother was also a member of the WVHS class of 1964 that participated in the vaccine drive, and he graduated in 1986.

A recent Looking Back column noted that in the Herald’s March 19, 1964, edition three students (Janice Dickey, Bena Lou Kendrick, and Kay Tyler) had assisted with clerical work during the Sabin vaccine program at WVHS.

Who was Sabin, and what was the vaccination program?

One of the great scourges of the last century was polio (short for poliomyelitis). The viral disease had no cure and could cripple children and adults alike. While most people who were infected showed mild or no symptoms, parents were driven by the fear that their child might die or become permanently disabled. And indeed, the most severely affected were left deformed, paralyzed, or confined to an iron lung—a mechanical respirator in the form of a metal cylinder that encased the patient’s whole body except for their head.

In 1952, the number of cases in the United States peaked at 57,628, with more than 3,000 deaths and 21,000 cases of paralysis. Infections topped out in Mississippi the year before with 732 reported. Since polio numbers rose during the summers, terrified parents often kept their children from playgrounds and forbade such activities as swimming.

The nation had a constant reminder of the disease in Franklin Roosevelt, U.S. president from 1933 to 1945. He contracted polio in 1921 at the age of 39—although the paralytic effects he suffered were hidden from the public as much as possible.

Some will remember the name Jonas Salk, who created a successful vaccine in 1952-53. But it required periodic booster shots. Albert Sabin enters the story with his development of an oral vaccine that didn’t need annual doses. Sabin’s vaccine also had the advantage of being economical and easy to administer—usually a few drops on a sugar cube (a method that permanently entered the cultural lexicon in the 1964 Mary Poppins song “A Spoonful of Sugar”).

However, full immunity was not achieved until after three doses of Sabin’s vaccine. Thus it was that counties across Mississippi organized public health campaigns like the one in Water Valley to inoculate its citizens. A flier for the “Sabin Sundays” in Washington County listed February 9, March 15, and April 19 as the vaccination dates at fifteen white schools in Greenville, Hollandale, Leland as well as Black schools at Arcola and Avon. There was no cost, but 25 cents was the suggested donation. “The program,” the flyer states, “is being sponsored, planned, and carried out by the Greenville Evening Lions Club with your help.”

Although the Washington County flyer has no year on it, those dates fell on Sundays in 1964, the same year as the Water Valley effort. Coahoma held a county-wide vaccination effort in 1965 during the months of April, May, and September—perhaps having to wait until schools were open again after the summer break for the final dose? Dispensing stations were listed as white schools in Clarksdale, Dublin, Jonestown, and Friars Point and Black schools in those towns as well as Lula, Sherard, Africa Roundaway, and Coahoma Agricultural High School.

Other sites included the Lula American Legion Hut and the Sherard Methodist Church. Five civic clubs were listed as Coahoma County sponsors: Lions Club, Civitans, Rotary Club, Exchange Club, and the Business and Professional Women’s Club.

Albert Sabin was born in 1906 in Bialystok, Poland—then a part of Russia—and moved with his family to the United States in 1921. He was awarded the U.S. National Medal of Science and nominated for the Nobel Prize. Sabin died in 1993 at age 87. Like Jonas Salk, he chose not to patent his vaccine and so received no money from its use. But the men’s work allowed for the eradication of polio, the most significant disease of the first half of the twentieth century.

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