Malcolm Ray “Chicken” Hicks, born November 27, 1925, in Durham, became one of the most vivid and influential personalities in the formative years of the Carolina shag, a dance style that developed along the coastal communities of the Carolinas in the mid-twentieth century. Raised in Durham, particularly in and around the Hayti district, Hicks was exposed at an early age to African American music and dance traditions, including the jitterbug, which deeply shaped his