Playing Beyond The Field: Charley Pride: I’m Just Me

Charley Pride: I’m Just Me: A Film Screening and Live Discussion Featuring Filmmaker and Director Barbara Hall and Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick 

Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Time: 6:00 pm

Location: The Roots Theater, National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM), 510 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203

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Event Description: 

Join us to honor legendary Country Music Hall of Fame artist Charley Pride on what would have been Pride’s 92nd birthday in a special evening celebrating his musical and sporting legacies. Often referred to as Country music’s “first Black superstar,” the late Charley Pride was both a renowned American Country artist with deep ties to Nashville and a baseball player who started his professional career as a pitcher in the Negro American League. This event will explore Pride’s expansive career in professional baseball and his rise within Country music’s commercial ranks, unpacking how his experiences in each provided Pride with a unique perspective to reflect upon larger questions of identity and belonging in two of America’s most distinctive and foundational cultural forms. Join us for a screening of Charley Pride: I’m Just Me, an insightful documentary that traces Pride’s distinctive life and career, followed by a live discussion and Q&A with the film’s director Barbara Hall and Bob Kendrick, President of the National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Join us before the event, beginning at 5:30 pm, for special after-hours at the Museum, featuring FREE gallery admission and light bites and drinks for purchase. 

Charley Pride: I’m Just Me is part of Playing Beyond the Field, a free, three-part series exploring the historic relationship between music and sport, with a particular focus on Nashville’s robust African American musical and sporting legacies. Curated by the co-directors of The Sound of Victory, Courtney M. Cox and Perry B. Johnson, Playing Beyond the Field is organized in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Sports & Society Initiative and the National Museum of African American Music.

About the film: 

Charley Pride: I’m Just Me traces the improbable journey of Charley Pride, from his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in segregated Sledge, Mississippi to his career as a Negro American League baseball player and his meteoric rise as a trailblazing country music superstar. The documentary reveals how Pride’s love for music led him from the Delta to a larger, grander world. In the 1940s, radio transcended racial barriers, making it possible for Pride to grow up listening to and imitating Grand Ole Opry stars like Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. The singer arrived in Nashville in 1963 while the city roiled with sit-ins and racial violence. But with boldness, perseverance and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with music industry insiders into a legacy of hit singles, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Narrated by Grammy-nominated country singer Tanya Tucker, the film features original interviews with country music royalty, including Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker and Marty Stuart, as well as on-camera conversations between Pride and special guests, including Rozene Pride (his wife of 61 years), Willie Nelson and fellow musicians.

Barbara Hall 

Barbara Hall is a lover of remarkable human stories and music. She is an Emmy nominated producer/director who brings more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of development, producing and directing original programming from both traditional television and the digital realm.

Hall is the producer/director of award winning specials, series, long form documentary films, and concerts, including for PBS: Brenda Lee: Rockin’ Around (2024), Great Performances – Patsy Cline: Walkin’ After Midnight (2024), Ann Wilson & Tripsitter: Live In Concert (2023), Great Performances – George Jones: Still Playin’ Possum (2023), Minnie Pearl: Facing The Laughter (2023), Wynona Judd: Concert from My Place (2021), Loretta Lynn: My Story in My Words (2021), Iconic Women of Country (2020), and more, and she has helmed A&E biographies of numerous artists, including Blondie, Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire, The Monkees, Davy Jones, and Selena.

Hall’s American Masters feature Charley Pride: I’m Just Me (2019) was No. 6 on Billboard’s Best Country Music Documentaries and her American Masters feature Patsy Cline (2018) was No. 11 on Billboard’s Best Country Music Documentaries.

Hall 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.

She is the recipient of the 2024 “Proof of Concept” grant for social justice film Faithful Defenders and recipient of the 2025 Nashville Women in Film & Television ALICE Awards Trailblazer award.

Bob Kendrick

Bob Kendrick was named President of the National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) in March 2011 where he is responsible for the museum’s day-to-day operations and the development and implementation of strategies to advance the mission of the 501 c3, not-for-profit organization. Since becoming President, he has helped orchestrate a more than $20 million turnaround that has helped the NLBM regain its vitality and 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.

He has been responsible for the development of several signature museum educational programs and events including the Hall of Game which annually honors former Major League Baseball greats who played the game in the spirit and signature style of the Negro Leagues. In 2020, Kendrick’s “Tip Your Cap” to the Negro Leagues campaign went viral and was launched with four U.S. Presidents (Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter) celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the establishment of the Negro Leagues.

And while he doesn’t fashion himself to be a historian, Kendrick has become one of the leading authorities on the topic of Negro Leagues Baseball history and its connection to issues relating to sports, race, and diversity. He has been a contributing writer for Ebony Magazine and the national Urban League’s Opportunity Magazine.

In 2021, Kendrick teamed with SiriusXM Radio to create and host the acclaimed national podcast, “Black Diamonds.” The podcast was named the 2021 “Sports Podcast of the Year,” by Adweek. He has received national acclaim for his storytelling and narration as part of the epic inclusion of the Negro Leagues in the Sony/Playstation video game MLB The Show.

Kendrick’s list of awards and honors include 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 the “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.

A native of Crawfordville, Ga., Kendrick received a basketball scholarship to attend Park College (Parkville, Mo.) in 1980 and earned a B.A. degree in Communications Arts in 1985.