soul spots

OVERVIEW
Every local music scene needs places where performers and fans can come together.
At venues like the Stallion Club and the Baby Grand, local artists and national acts played to enthusiastic crowds looking to cut loose. Your Own Theater opened its doors to teenage talent shows, poetry readings, and black theater productions. Performers traveling through Durham needed accommodations to stay in town overnight. Lucky fans might catch James Brown stepping out of his tour bus to check into a room at the Biltmore Hotel before putting on a show later that night.
At local record stores, music fans could buy their favorite performers’ records or discover new artists. At Snoopy’s, store manager Jimmy Liggins even scouted for young talent and helped launch the careers of local groups like Chapel Hill’s Liquid Pleasure band.

MAP
RECORD BAR
201 E. Main St.
Record Bar, located on the corner of Church and East Main Streets, was opened in 1960 by the Jewish entrepreneur Harry Bergman. Although the Record Bar carried all kinds of music, it had an especially strong R&B and soul selection. In the decades to come, Bergman an his family opened over 150 Record Bar locations, first in North Carolina and then throughout the Southeast. By the 1980s the chain was one of the largest in the country.
YOUR OWN THING
324-328 E. Pettigrew Street
Karen Rux opened Your Own Thing Theater, a black-oriented performing arts and youth center, in 1969. The theater was both a venue for performances by local bands and a meeting place for Durham’s local scene of the Black Arts Movement. In 1970, the theater was bombed by an unknown assailant.
EAST PETTIGREW STREET
During the Jim Crow era of legal segregation, blacks and whites had separate business districts in many cities. Durham's black financial institutions were on Parrish Street, but the heart of the black retail district was on the 300 block of East Pettigrew Street. Nationally-known soul, jazz and R&B performers touring in the area often stayed at the Biltmore Hotel, one of the state’s few black-owned hotels. Both the Your Own Thing Theater and radio station WAFR were located on this block in the 1970s. Unfortunately, all of these buildings were torn down in 1977 to make way for a parking lot.
SNOOPY'S
306 S. Dillard St.
Snoopy’s was the best known black-owned record store in Durham in the 1970s. Owned by Paul Truitt and managed by former R&B star Jimmy Liggins, the store stood at the corner of Dillard and E. Pettigrew. Truitt also managed local bands like The Communicators and the Black Experience Band.
CLUB BABY GRAND
915 Ramseur St.
The Baby Grand Club was a popular night spot where local soul and disco acts performed in the 1970s.
STALLION CLUB
3022 S. Highway 55, Durham
The Stallion Club opened in 1964 in south Durham and quickly became the city’s premier nightclub for R&B and soul music. Although known as a “black club,” the Stallion quickly attracted both black and white customers. The Stallion was bombed in 1968 for unknown reasons.
Johnny White at the Stallion Club.

Every local music scene needs places where performers and fans can come together.

201 E. Main St.

324-328 E. Pettigrew Street

Karen Rux opened Your Own Thing Theater, a black-oriented performing arts and youth center, in 1969. The theater was both a venue for performances by local bands and a meeting place for Durham’s local scene of the Black Arts Movement. In 1970, the theater was bombed by an unknown assailant.

306 S. Dillard St.

Snoopy’s was the best known black-owned record store in Durham in the 1970s. Owned by Paul Truitt and managed by former R&B star Jimmy Liggins, the store stood at the corner of Dillard and E. Pettigrew. Truitt also managed local bands like The Communicators and the Black Experience Band.

915 Ramseur St.

The Baby Grand Club was a popular night spot where local soul and disco acts performed in the 1970s.

3022 S. Highway 55, Durham

The Stallion Club opened in 1964 in south Durham and quickly became the city’s premier nightclub for R&B and soul music. Although known as a “black club,” the Stallion quickly attracted both black and white customers. The Stallion was bombed in 1968 for unknown reasons.

Johnny White at the Stallion Club.