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Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem
Jeffries, D-N.Y., will join Arkansas' congressional delegation,
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and members of the Cash family for
the event.
The Cash statue is the second new figure Arkansas has sent to
replace two existing images that had represented the state at
the U.S. Capitol for more than 100 years. Another statue
depicting civil rights leader Daisy Bates was unveiled at the
Capitol earlier this year. Bates mentored the nine Black
children who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in
1957.
The state's legislature in 2019 voted to replace Arkansas' two
prior statues, which depicted little-known figures from the 18th
and 19th centuries, with Bates and Cash.
The two were approved after Arkansas lawmakers debated competing
statue ideas ranging from Walmart founder Sam Walton to a Navy
SEAL from the state who was killed in Afghanistan. Each state
may donate two statues representing notable figures from their
history to the Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.
Cash was born in Kingsland, a tiny town about 60 miles (100
kilometers) south of Little Rock. He died in 2003 at age 71. His
achievements include 90 million records sold worldwide spanning
country, rock, blues, folk and gospel. He is among the few
artists inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and
the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The Cash statue depicts the singer with a guitar slung across
his back and a Bible in his hand. Little Rock sculptor Kevin
Kresse, who was selected to create the statue, has sculpted
other musical figures from Arkansas such as Al Green, Glen
Campbell and Levon Helm.
Cash's statue will be the newest added to the Capitol since one
from North Carolina depicting the Rev. Billy Graham was unveiled
in May.
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