Local band bridged racial divide

The arrival of the University’s first black undergraduates in 1955 was a controversial landmark in the struggle for civil rights.

But the year also marked the beginning of another, more lighthearted era in the South — the reign of Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts, one of Chapel Hill’s most beloved music groups.

That year, Doug Clark, a Chapel Hill native and graduate of the all-black Lincoln High School, started his first band, The Tops.

Fred Battle, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the band, eventually known as the Hot Nuts, quickly found local acceptance — something that contrasted with the tenor of the time.

“The University always accepted black entertainment, just not always black students,” Battle said.

The Hot Nuts booked shows in the area and found popularity in different settings — including black nightclubs such as the Square Club, then located in Durham, and predominantly white fraternity parties, beginning with Phi Delta Theta.

“Before the band started, Doug worked for a fraternity and heard Willie Hargraves’ band play,” said his brother John Clark, the band’s saxophonist.

There, Doug Clark first heard the song that would become his band’s name and trademark.

“He heard the song ‘Hot Nuts,’” John Clark said. “Everywhere we go people ask for that song, and they add verses.”

Fellow band member Prince Taylor began singing for the group in 1959 and continued on and off for 28 years.

“The real song is called ‘Jada,’” Taylor said of “Hot Nuts.” “We made up some verses, just suggestive stuff, nothing rough.

“Then the students would add verses, and the song got rougher.”

The band developed a repertoire of popular R&B tunes and humorous musical sketches, which it adapted according to its musical venue.

“Wednesdays and Thursdays were for the clubs, Fridays and Saturdays were for the college,” John Clark said. “We did R&B at the clubs and more comedy at the colleges.”

The band’s style and history helped give it a unique place in the community.

“I believe there weren’t any other black bands around here that I know of,” Taylor said.

Battle said he remembers the band well. “Everyone knew them.”

Though the band’s rise to prominence coincided with the beginning of the integration movement, John Clark recalls the band being well-received locally and in other colleges throughout the South.

“We probably played at 200 colleges and universities before the movement even started,” John Clark said. “We played colleges in Mississippi, Alabama, all over. Colleges were fine.

“Travel situations and places to eat outside the colleges were a problem.”

When segregation closed doors, many fraternities were happy to help the band out. Members helped find black families to board the band, or even hosted the band in their fraternity houses.

“We didn’t consider it trouble because it was all we knew,” Taylor said. “Doug wouldn’t take a whole lot of junk back then.”

Battle said he saw the band perform at his alma mater, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.

“I think they preferred playing at the fraternities,” Battle said. “The fraternities got more into the dialogue and the lyrics.”

And these lyrics helped contribute to the band’s reputation.

“‘Hot Nuts’ was very risqu