Charley Pride, a country music Black superstar, dies at 86
“I’m so heartbroken that one of my dearest and oldest friends, Charley Pride, has passed away. 1 hits between 1969 and 1984, won the Country Music Association’s Top Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year awards in 1972 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000. But until the early 1990s, when Cleve Francis came along, Pride was the only Black country singer signed to a major label. “Then it was `first Negro country singer;’ then `first black country singer.′ Now I’m the `first African-American country singer.′ That’s about the only thing that’s changed. “The Texas Rangers join the country music world in mourning the loss of Charley Pride.