NASHVILLE, TN — Charley Pride, the first Black superstar in the modern era of country music, was also a skilled baseball player who began his career as a pitcher in the Negro American League.
The National Museum of African American Music recognized and celebrated both his famous careers on March 18 with the event “Playing Beyond the Field: Charley Pride: I’m Just Me.” It was a combination film screening and live discussion featuring filmmaker and director Barbara Hall and Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
This was a free event presented in the Roots Theater, National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM), 510 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203. There was also a special after-hours event at the Museum starting at 5:30 p.m., featuring free gallery admission, light bites, and drinks for purchase.
“Charley Pride: I’m Just Me” was part of the three-part series “Beyond the Field,” which explored the historic relationship between music and sports. The series had a special focus on Nashville’s Black musical and sporting legacies and was curated by the co-directors of “The Sound of Victory,” Courtney M. Cox and Perry B. Johnson. “Playing Beyond the Field” was organized in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Sports & Society Initiative and the National Museum of African American Music.
The film “Charley Pride: I’m Just Me” traced his journey from being a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in segregated Sledge, Mississippi, to the Negro Leagues and then his historic evolution into country music superstardom. He arrived in Nashville at a volatile time in 1963 but managed to enjoy a legacy of hit singles and earned, among other things, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The film was narrated by Tanya Tucker and featured original interviews with such stars as Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, and Marty Stuart. It also included on-camera conversations between Pride and special guests, including Rozene Pride (his wife of 61 years), Willie Nelson, and fellow musicians.
Filmmaker and director Barbara Hall has produced several award-winning specials, series, long-form documentary films, and concerts. She first debuted “Charley Pride: I’m Just Me” in 2019 as part of PBS’ American Masters series. She is also the Founder and President of Clear Cut Inc., Vice President of TH Entertainment LLC, and consults on a wide range of music-related rights. Hall was the recipient of the 2024 “Proof of Concept” grant for the social justice film Faithful Defenders and the 2025 Nashville Women in Film & Television ALICE Awards Trailblazer award.
Bob Kendrick was named President of the National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) in March 2011, where he was responsible for the museum’s day-to-day operations and the development and implementation of strategies to advance the mission of the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Since becoming President, he helped orchestrate a more than $20 million turnaround that revitalized the NLBM and strengthened its financial stability. Kendrick began his association with the NLBM as a volunteer in 1993 and served on the museum’s board of directors for five years, where he was instrumental in shaping plans for the museum’s current home. He became the museum’s first full-time Marketing Director in 1998.
Kendrick’s list of awards and honors includes the Mary Lona Diversity Award from the Greater Kansas City Black Chamber of Commerce and “Citizen of the Year” from the Omicron Xi Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. In 2009, The Kansas City Globe named Kendrick to the paper’s list of “100 Most Influential African Americans in Greater Kansas City.” He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. The Kansas City Call newspaper named him “Person of the Year” in 2020. In 2021, the Beta Lambda chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity named him “Businessperson of the Year,” and he was bestowed honorary doctorate degrees from Judson University and William Jewell College, respectively.
Copyright TNTRIBUNE 2026. All rights reserved.
