A statue honoring the late country music icon Johnny Cash will be unveiled in the U.S. Capitol next month, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced Thursday.
The Arkansas native will be the state’s second statue in the Capitol, a news release states. A statue of Daisy Bates, a civil rights leader who headed Arkansas’ chapter of the NAACP and mentored the Black students known as the Little Rock Nine who integrated Central High School in 1957, was unveiled in National Statuary Hall on May 8.
Cash’s and Bates’ statues replaced ones depicting Uriah Rose, a 19th-century attorney, and James P. Clarke, a former governor and U.S. senator in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Both statutes drew criticism, especially over racist remarks Clarke made calling on the Democratic Party to preserve “white standards.”
Cash was born in 1932 in Kingsland, a small town about 60 miles south of Little Rock. He died at the age of 71 in 2003 from complications from diabetes.
The musician sold 90 million records worldwide spanning country, blues, rock and gospel. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. Throughout his career, Cash was the recipient of numerous awards including 13 Grammy Awards and 9 Country Music Association Awards.
The 8-foot-tall statue of Cash, created by Little Rock sculptor Kevin Kresse, shows the singer with a guitar slung across his back and a Bible in his hand.
The unveiling ceremony will take place Sept. 24 in Emancipation Hall. House Speaker Johnson, Jeffries, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders, and Cash’s family will be in attendance.
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