stephanie elam joins me from los angeles. stephanie, so much concern about what's transpiring in that state right now. you had dr. anthony fauci referencing it in his own concern this morning. >> reporter: yeah, for sure. when you look at these numbers you can see there is a problem. nationwide you are talking about that 12,000 people who are hospitalized, that record there. people in mind that's the 27th day in a row that we have been over 100,000 hospitalizations in the united states right now and on top of that you look at december, we know it's the deadliest month by far now of all of the pandemics and you see that number above 66,000 and we see the number of cases in december, it's 5.7 million ca s cases -- [ no audio ] not going the way that they should be going especially since people are definitely moving around. we saw the most people traveling the day -- on sunday out of all of this pandemic according to the tsa that's when they saw the most people go through their check points. all of this is factoring into what we

let's go to stephanie elam, she is in los angeles. le, as you noted, right, they're not just cases, they're people, really daunting there. >> reporter: think about it. listening to what dr. fauci was saying, jim and poppy, and thinking about where we are right now and we haven't seen the thanksgiving surge. california reported more than 30,000 new cases, new infections of people with the coronavirus. and you look at where the deaths stand right now in the state, it's likely we're going to surpass 20,000 people having died from this virus in the next couple of days. hospitalizations

thank you so much stephanie elam, we appreciate it. >>> i'm joined by dr. william shaftner who's on the cdc advisory committee on immunization practices. thanks for coming on with us. the administration said the goal was 20 million people vaccinated by the end of the year. we're far below that. what can be done now over the next few weeks to speed up the process? >> those goals were always aspirational and things always look easier from washington. then they do down in the field. you know, we have over 6,000 local health departments across this country. they're all starting their vaccinations along with many major medical centers. and we're all doing it very, very carefully. as we get through our first week or two weeks of doing it that way, we can speed things up, and i know here at vianderbilt we have no slots for vaccine recipients that are going unused. so things are clearly revving up. think of it like a locomotive getting started. the first few wheel turns are slow and difficult and then things move faster. and so, as we get into the new year, i think

stephanie elam, thanks very much. now lts go to florida where that state should surpass 1 million coronavirus infections today. rosa flores is in miami beach. rosa, the governor there doubling down on his stance against a statewide mask mandate. you know, funneling the numbers here, right, he's claiming that nowhere have masks made a difference when in fact the data shows otherwise. >> reporter: you know, you're absolutely right and the governor even getting testy with a report who are asked him the question if he would consider a mask mandate in the state so much so that he listened her question with a question. take a listen. >> does that stop an outbreak in minnesota, illinois, michigan? what about new jersey? what about all these states where you have explosion in cases? so, i mean, at some point does the observed experience matter? i'm opposed to mandates, period. i don't think they work. >> reporter: governor ron desantis also announced yesterday that schools will reopen for in-person instruction next semester.

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cnn's stephanie elam is in colorado with more. stephanie, what more have we learned? >> reporter: beep na, let's start with that san diego case, it's the one we have learned about most recently. we know it's a 30-year-old man who is quarantining now, we know that he really did not have a lot of social interaction during that potentially contagious period according to county health officials. they are saying he has two household members and on tuesday one of those members has started to show symptoms, however, because he hasn't had a lot of interaction, no social interaction, no work interaction, they're doing the contact tracing here but they're feeling bet before it not spreading as far from this one individual, however, the fact that he has this variant does show that there is community spread. in fact, take a listen to what dr. anthony fauci said about the prevalence and the fact that we are now finding this variant here in the united states. >> you're going to be hearing about reports from other states and more cases in the states that have already reported. unfor

cnn's stephanie elam is in los angeles. e and how we're seeing this spike. >> yes, you know what, the scary part about that too, dr. barbara ferrer talking about these numbers here in l.a. county, she said this is the worst day we've seen in l.a. county but it's likely not probably going to be the worse we'll see throughout the pandemic and that is scary because yesterday l.a. county posted a 7,500 -- almost 7,600 new cases yesterday. that is a record. previous record, by the way, was set just last week at over 6,100. the virus spreading more quickly now than any other point. yesterday's positivity rate they reported in one day, 12% nearly. it's almost 12%. by comparison one week ago it was about 7%. you take a look at the hospitalization and new record set there. more than 2,300 people in the hospital. the previous record for hospitalizations was during the summer surge. this tells you things are going in the wrong way. on november 1, there were just about 800 people in the hospital so you see almost every single day since

stephanie elam. >> it felt like it would never end, we made it. say so long, 2020. andy cohen. starting at 9 clock right here on cnn. >>> new details about the christmas morning blast in downtown nashville. the fbi is now asking for the public's health. "new day" continues after a quick break. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette [♪] life is band sometimes odors can sneak up on you. for a convenient life hack. try febreze unstopables fabric refresher. with 2 times the scent power of regular febreze, unstopables fabric finds, neutralizes and eliminates tough odors trapped in hard-to-wash fabrics, like couches or smelly sports equipment; leaving an irresistibly fresh scent. and for a tropical burst of freshness, try new paradise scent. stop sneaky odors from lingering in your home, with febreze unstopables. >>> one of nashville, tennessee's main entertainment districts is one giant

stephanie elam looks at the dire situation in los angeles county. stephanie? >> reporter: brianna, los angeles county hitting a record number of hospitalizations yet again. this number is now above 2400 people hospitalized with the coronavirus, this as they say they have about 120 icu beds that are available. this is a county of about 10 million people. that's terrifying to health officials here. this is why they're saying we could run out of hospital beds by christmas, also why the mayor of los angeles, eric garcetti, says it is time to cancel everything and stay home. brianna? >> stephanie elam, thank you for that report. joining me, dr. mark morocco emergency room physician at the reagan ucla emergency medical center in los angeles. doctor, thank you for joining us, talking about what you're seeing. tell us what's happening on the ground where you are, how stretched your hospital is. >> thanks, brianna. first thing i would say to everybody listening to all of us, don't panic. thank you to those people who we give permission to hear the stories you just ran.

stephanie elam is in los angeles. it's hard for people to digest the numbers but the consistent line this week are the graphs going like this on every measure of this outbreak. >> it's true. we say these numbers and they're numbers but what they are are people. i wish people would think about it that way, jim. when you look at where we are, starting with our deaths we had a record number of deaths yesterday. that number 2,879 people losing their lives to the coronavirus. you look at the number of new cases that came out in a day. yesterday, that's a new record there as well. 217,664. hospitalizations, 100,667 americans hospitalized. a new record there as well. this as we see the numbers across the country going in the wrong direction. when you take a look at that here in california, you see the numbers are also going in the wrong direction. we see that we have a record number of new cases reported yesterday as well. according to johns hopkins data which says more than 21,300 people tested positive in that data for the

stephanie elam is in los angeles. good morning, stephanie. tell us where the stay-at-home orders will take effect and for how long. >> reporter: jim, i come and i speak to you every day and we talk about numbers, but i really want to just take a moment to really let this sink into people. 2,879 people were reported dead yesterday because of the coronavirus. think about how large that number is. unless you have somebody in that number maybe you don't care but imagine if that's someone you care about. imagine if that is yourself. this is where we are right now. it is dire. and that is just the death number. when you look at where we are in cases, we have a record number there as well. 217,664 reported yesterday. same thing with hospitalizations, at a record number, 100,667. this is dive straights for the state of the united states. then you take a look at california and you can understand why things are going the wrong direction and we are looking at a new stay-at-home order here. looking at the data for california we saw that the state reporte

stephanie elam is in los angeles with the record hospitalizations there. , right? they're worried about hospitals being overwhelmed. >> reporter: completely the issue, jim. when you take a look at this record number it's approaching 2,500 here in los angeles county of people that are in the hospital, that's up about 85% from two weeks ago and they're also saying that 24% of these people are in the icu so that's obviously of concern. and the fact that right now there's only 122 icu beds. remember, we are a county of about 10 million. that is also very concerning and that's why they're concerned that if things continue as they are we could be without hospital beds by the time we got to christmas. that's the reason why we've heard the mayor say this. i also had a chance to speak with the chief operating officer of cedar sinai medical center here in los angeles, dr. jeff smith, to talk a bit about the vaccine. they've been chosen as a vaccine distribution site but there are still some questions out there. take a listen to what he told me. >> we're waiting to he

cnn's stephanie elam is hoping her own example will encourage minorities to get the shot. ne candidate by johnson & johnson, the giant u.s. pharmaceutical company. but as stephanie points out, distrust of vaccines by some minorities runs deep. >> reporter: everyone in this office is here in the pursuit of science. >> hopefully i'll develop immunity over the next few weeks. >> reporter: ark clinical research will administer shots to about 200 people. part of a ram dndomized vaccine trial for johnson & johnson. >> i'm very comfortable with getting the injection. >> reporter: but not everyone is. especially since trials have been sped up to battle a coronavirus crisis that's out of control. nationwide, some 40,000 people are taking part in this trial. >> just breathe normally. >> reporter: including me. i'm not just reporting on this phase three covid-19 vaccine trial, i'm part of it. i wanted to do this because i wanted to see how the science worked and i wanted other black people, other people of color, to see someone like them going through this process. >> generally, it's

it's terrifying how large these numbers are. >> stephanie elam with the latest for us this morning. thank you. >>> breaking overnight, president-elect joe biden just announced his health team, including his picks for health secretary, surgeon general, and director of the cdc. jessica dean is life in wilmington, delaware, with more for us this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, erica. we do have this breaking news for you this morning, as the biden transition team formally announcing these key players in their health team. of course, as we see those coronavirus numbers surging, this team going to play a critical role in getting coronavirus under control. so let's walk through some of the members of this biden health team. we know that president-elect joe biden has selected javier becerra, the california attorney general, to serve as his health and human services secretary. this, of course, bringing more diversity to biden's cabinet at a time when there have been calls from outside groups to put more diverse candidates or more diverse nominees in his cabinet. and

cnn's stephanie elam is live in los angeles with more on what's happening in california. steph, good morning. zbloor >> reporter: good morning, erica. let's just take a look at the bigger picture and you can see that across the country, we have a problem with this pandemic. it is getting worse. in just the last week, 1.2 million cases have been added. and right now, a record number of hospitalizations, more than 101,000 people currently battling the virus from inside of a hospital. here in california, it paints the picture very clearly that there is a problem. this as the state announced more than 30,000 new cases in people just reported in one day. this is obviously the way that we do not want to see these numbers to go. and because of that, we have this new stay-at-home order that went into effect regionally for two regions, the southern california region and the san joaquin region. the state now broken up into five regions here. and that's because the icu bed capacity has fallen below 15%. in fact, these two areas are getting close to above 90% here. obviously, scary n

stephanie elam is live in los angeles. stephanie, what are the rules this go around? >> reporter: right. pretty much like what we saw before, a little different, brooke, to make it pretty blunt. what we're looking at is two regions of california that have now fallen into this new barometer, whether icu beds, capacity that's available is below 15%. those two regions would be san joaquin valley where you see agricultural businesses, and southern california which would include where i am now. those icu bed capacities are approaching almost 95% in both those places. because of that as of midnight last night, we are seeing that the stay at home order is in place which means that you can't get your haircut, can't go to the barbershop, no salons, can't go to the museum. all these things are going to be for at least three weeks. may end up being longer, because, let me give you numbers, california reported one day tally more than 30,000 testing positive for the virus. hospitalizations are now above 10,000. governor gavin newsom is holding a press conference now which i was li

stephanie elam, the warnings coming out about california now very concerning. >> reporter: very much so, john. you take a look that the vaccine is on the way but health figu s officials are saying that does not mean it's time to let our foot off the gas. the coronavirus pandemic not abating. at least 43 states are over the 5% crucial positivity threshold. more than 96,000 americans now hospitalized with the coronavirus, another high for the country. >> we have to do everything we can during this very serious time when our hospitals are really being hit to slow down the transmission. >> governor mike dewayne saine more than 5,000 people are hospitalized in ohio, the most in the state. >> our numbers have risen so quickly and drastically. >> we're seeing healthy individuals come in and they decline so quickly. >> reporter: this field hospital in rhode island is starting to receive patients after hospitals in the state surpassed their capacity. >> we're expecting to be taking care of a lot of folks here. we didn't need to be here, knowing we all could have stayed home and stayed distanc

stephanie elam is standing by, tracking all of this. what's happening there right now, stephanie?> it's what we're seeing across the country, kate, as we are seeing these coronavirus numbers just rise. and really, when you look at all of the records being set, not just in california, but in many states across the nation, this is a problem that now the states are trying to fix. the alarming surge in new coronavirus cases has medical experts more concerned than ever. >> we're not likely to see a peak in the number of infections until the end of december, into january, so things are going to get a lot worse. >> reporter: the united states has added 1.2 million new coronavirus cases in the first six days of december alone. >> the gatherings that we saw at thanksgiving will lead to a surge. it will happen this week and next week. and we cannot go into the holiday season, with this same kind of attitude. >> reporter: hospitalizations continue to rise. more than 101,000 americans are hospitalized with the virus nationwide. >> hospitals are getting full. and it's just hard to find spaces

stephanie elam has more on his trailblazing career. >> reporter: charley pride was country music's firsters, he fell in love with country music after listening to grand ole opry radio shows in his youth. >> i've always loved entertainment. i've always loved to listen to not only just singing but the radio shows. >> reporter: yet he first found success in a different field. >> that was where i wanted to make my mark. baseball, i saw jackie robinson and i was down there picking that cotton in mississippi, and i said hey, here's my way out. >> reporter: pride entered the negro leagues at the age of 16. he sang at local music clubs in his failed time and after a failed try out with the new york mets made music his focus. legendary country guitarest and record executive chet atkins took a chance on him and launched his career. pride's first sing ltz were released without any mention of his race or even a picture of him. but in due course country music fans discovered who he was and liked what they saw. his 1967 break through single "just between you and me" was a top ten country hit and earne

let's go to stephanie elam, she is in los angeles. stephanie, the numbers of people, as you noted, right, they're not just cases, they're people, really daunting there. >> reporter: think about it. listening to what dr. fauci was saying, jim and poppy, and thinking about where we are right now and we haven't seen the thanksgiving surge. california reported more than 30,000 new cases, new infections of people with the coronavirus. and you look at where the deaths stand right now in the state, it's likely we're going to surpass 20,000 people having died from this virus in the next couple of days. hospitalizations 10,000 people in the hospital battling the disease and look at the region. california has broken up the state into five different regions. two of the regions as of last night are now in new stay-at-home orders. they're revised from what we saw in the spring. there are some things you can do, but as far as southern california and san joaquin valley, this meechbs there's no sitting at a restaurant, indoor or outdoor. you can do ta

where stephanie elam is. my question is, are people there listening, stephanie?e noting, me and the producer were looking on the streets, there's a lot less cars out there today. maybe people are actually listening to this because numbers are terrifying. if you take a look at what california reported for their daily numbers for coronavirus cases, 20,759, one day number they came out with. a new record there. also, hospitalizations, more than 9300 people in the hospital in california. that's also a record there. these are scary numbers we're looking at. when you look at los angeles county as well, they're very concerned. saying that right now they have about 122 icu beds that are available in a county of about 10 million people. this is why we are already in stay at home order here in los angeles county and this is why the entire state of california, 99.2% of the population is living in the most restrictive tier, and why they're very much concerned they may have to put in more controls because the virus is spreading rampantly. dana, i wish people could spend time

stephanie elam, thank you. >>> in a little under two hours the department of health and human services and department of defense will hold a briefing with operation warp speed officials about the covid-19 distribution. this comes as the rollout is seriously behind schedule. cnn's national correspondent kristen holmes has more details for us. just how far behind are they, and what can expect to hear about this briefing? >> if you look at the cdc numbers, they're incredibly behind. remember, they were trying to get to 20 million doses, vaccine in arms by the end of the year tomorrow. and the cdc said right now they're at 2.1 million doses administered, just over 11 million doses have been shipped out. again, just 2.1 administered. we are expecting to see some sort of update in those numbers today. we're told that every monday, wednesday and friday this dashboard will be updated but no word on timing for that. i asked a senior administration official what this briefing would be about. he was very vague. he said there was a weekly press schedule, they were going to talk about distribution

cnn correspondent stephanie elam is live in california. what is l.a.ounty saying about the shortage of oxygen supply? >> reporter: well, what we know, brooke, there's at least five hospitals that have been effected by this. it is not necessarily a shortage of oxygen as much as it may be a problem with infrastructure because there's such demand for oxygen that it is pointing out weaknesses in old infrastructure, mainly pipes getting oxygen to patients. also, when so much oxygen is going through pipes, it can freeze pipes, obviously that's a problem, too. they moved some patients lower in hospitals because then they don't need as much pressure to go through the pipes to get oxygen to them. we're talking about respiratory illness. there's obviously a huge demand for oxygen now, that's part of it, but it is internal disaster, some hospitals had to turn away patients, this on top of the fact that in california we're seeing a surge upon a surge. here in southern california as you said as well as san joaquin valley, we are expecting that stay at home order to

cnn's stephanie elam is live in los angeles. she's tracking the latest from there. the numbers where you are worse every day. how are hospitals coping? >> reporter: we're looking at these numbers rising here, kate, as we're looking at the hospitalizations coming close to record numbers in california. if you look at the country overall, 34 states and puerto rico all had at least one record day for hospitalizations in november according to johns hopkins university and that bodes for a dark winter ahead for the united states. the coronavirus pandemic not abating. at least 43 states are over the crucial 5% test positivity threshold. more than 96,000 americans hospitalized with the coronavirus, another high for the country. >> we have to do everything we can during this very serious time when our hospitals are really being hit to slow down the transmission. >> reporter: governor mike dewine said more than 5,000 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus in ohio. the most for the state throughout the entire pandemic. >> our numbers have just risen so quickly and so dras

. >> reporter: i'm stephanie elam in colorado, the site of where we found the first variant of the uk strain of the coronavirus in the united states. what we can tell you now is that the first person to have been confirmed with it is a 28-year-old man who is in the colorado national guard and there's a suspected case of another person who also is in the colorado national guard. they were pitching in and helping out here at this assisted living facility after all the patients here came down with the coronavirus in mid to late december. so they needed more hands on deck, that is why they're here. both of the individuals are isolated outside of this county. however, the fact that they did have it and neither one of them has a travel profile outside of the country leads many to believe that the virus is prevalent and it is spreading throughout the community and is already probably here and in other states as well. that's why, again, as you heard paul say, officials are asking people to not get together tonight because it seems like this new variant is more contagious than the one we've kn

stephanie elam is in los angeles where the mayor is encouraging people to stay home and puhunke down. the question is do people listen? what are you seeing out there? >> keep in mind los angeles county is already in a refined stay-at-home order, it's different than earlier in the spring but we are here. that's because the numbers do not lie. let's look at the numbers, daily cases up 224%. you have hospitalizations up 85% in the last two weeks. the positivity rate, the one-day positivity rate at just about 12%. keep in mind that if you look back to november 1st, it was just under 4% here. record number of hospitalizations that we're talking about, and then also the fact that they're looking at icu beds and saying they only have 122 icu beds available currently in l.a. county. keep in mind this is a county of about 10 million people. this is why they're afraid we could run out of hospital beds by christmas if something doesn't change and that is why we are already in this county under a modified stay-at-home order, jim. >> on the good side of the ledger, vaccine anticipation is building

cnn's stephanie elam is there for us live this afternoon. stephanie, who's infected? what do we know? >> reporter: right. well, first of all, brooke, let me tell you where we are, here in simla, colorado, 100 miles away from denver international airport, so we are far away from a big city. this is a rural county where we are, so that's why it's interesting that we now know we have one confirmed case of this variant and one suspected case, both tracing back here to this skilled nursing facility. we do know that these two men -- the confirmed case is a 28-year-old man -- and the other man, they were both working here in nonclinical positions, helping out after there was a covid-19 outbreak about 2 1/2 weeks ago. so, they stepped in to help out here. they both got sick. they, at this point, the county does not think there is any reason to be concerned about a spread out further into this area of the county. and on top of it, we also know that the state has sent a team down here to do testing of the people who do live here. there's about 25 residents, as well as the peopl

stephanie elam is in los angeles.y at home order, what it means and doesn't mean. >> reporter: and dana, keep in mind, we haven't seen the expected surge after thanksgiving, that's a couple weeks away. that's why these numbers are terrifying. here in los angeles county, we hit a record number of new cases that were reported. that number is 7,854, according to the state. that's the second record this week in hospitalizations. also hitting a record as well. 2,572. broke the record set the day before. that shows you things are going in the wrong direction here. they do expect the icu beds will fall below 15% threshold next week. in fact, according to the governor, taking a look at the new stay at home order that we are on the precipice of now, it looks at the state, breaks it up into five different regions. and then inside those regions, when the icu bed capacity falls below 15%, that's when it will trigger a new stay at home order. there are some things that are different. in the spring, you could go outside. all those

correspondent stephanie elam in california where the governor said his state could impose new restrictions. what restrictions and when? >> reporter: jim, he's talking about a renewed stay-at-home order for certain regions where they're seeing the virus spreading rampantly throughout the community there. they're saying they're seeing it throughout the state. 99% of the population is living in counties where we are in the most restrictive tier of the plan that the state has put into position to monitor the virus transmission here. and that is of concern. especially when you look at our positivity rate, which continues to grow. it's now back at the level that we haven't seen since the end of august, which was the end of the summer surge. listen to california governor, gavin newsom talk about the percentage of the positivity. >> we have certainly seen an increase in the last number of weeks in not only the case rates but also more importantly perhaps the positivity rate. and that positive rate, just in the last few weeks, 4.7 to 6.2 is disconcerting. we know that will impact our health care sy

stephanie elam is joining us live in los angeles. what are you hearing? >> reporter: that's definitely being considered now, kate, is the idea of shutting back down on some level, a stay-at-home order at some level. here in los angeles county we have one, it's modified from the spring. you are talking about numbers that are scary. let me tell what you california is dealing with right now. the number of cases announced yesterday, 20,759. that is a new record for cases in one day. blows out the previous record by a lot. look at the hospitalizations more than 9,300 people in the hospital here in california now. also just shattering the records we've seen before, this is obviously of large concern as we've seen the positivity rate rising since november 1st or so, up about 2% in the last 14 days just under 7%. when you look at los angeles county, the largest county -- i should say the most populous county in the state. you can see this is where the trend is showing up. you can look at it and see and talk about the fact that hospital sailizations are hitti reco

stephanie elam has the story. ♪ oh, the snakes crawl at night ♪ >> reporter: charlie pride was country first black superstar. he fell in love with country music after listening to grand ol' opry radio shows in his youth. >> i've always loved entertainment. i've always loved to listen to not only just singing but the radio shows. >> reporter: yet he first found success in a different field. >> that was where i wanted to make my mark, baseball. i saw jackie robinson and i was picking that cotton in mississippi. hey, here's my way out. >> reporter: pride entered the negro leagues at the age of 16 and eventually became an all-star player. he sang in local music clubs in his spare time, and after a failed tryout with the new york mets made music his focus. pride's race proved to be a hurdle for country labels at the time, but legendary country guitarist and record executive chet atkins took a chance on him. ♪ pride's first singles were released without any mention of his race or even a picture of him. but in due course, country music fans discovered who he was. ♪ just between you and me >>

our team is across the country this morning, let's begin with stephanie elam in california where thevernor says that his state could see new restrictions as hospitals there near capacity he worries by christmas. steve knee, you know, it was months ago, california seemed to have this under

cnn's stephanie elam is taking part in the j&j vaccine trial and here she shows us what it's been like. >> reporter: everyone in this office is here in the pursuit of science. >> hopefully, i'll develop immunity over the next few weeks. >> reporter: art clinical research will administer shots to about 200 people and part of a randomized covid vaccine trial for johnson & johnson. >> i think enough is known that i'm very comfortable with getting the injection. >> reporter: but not everyone is, especially since trials have been sped up to battle a coronavirus crisis that is out of control. ni nationwide, some 40,000 people are taking part of this trial, including me. i'm not just reporting on this phase three covid trial, i'm part of it. i wanted to do this because i wanted to see how the science worked and i wanted other black people, other people of color to see someone like them going through this process. >> generally, it's important that you study people from many different diverse backgrounds because you can have a different side effect profile or you can have different dose levels

reporter stephanie elam has the journey from the son of sharecroppers to legendary musician. ♪ oh, thes crawl at night ♪ >> reporter: charlie pride was country music's first black superstar. he fell in love with country music after listening to grand ol' opry radio shows in his youth. >> i've always loved entertainment. i've always loved to listen to not only just singing but the radio shows. >> reporter: yet he first found success in a different field. >> that was where i wanted to make my mark, baseball. i saw jackie robinson and i was picking that cotton in mississippi. hey, here's my way out. >> reporter: pride entered the negro leagues at the age of 16 and eventually became an all-star player. he sang in local music clubs in his spare time, and after a failed tryout with the new york mets made music his focus. pride's race proved to be a hurdle for country labels at the time, but legendary country guitarist and record executive chet atkins took a chance on him. ♪ pride's first singles were released without any mention of his race or even a picture of him. but in due course, countr