Johnny Cash statue unveiled at U.S. Capitol

Singer, songwriter, activist and Arkansas native Johnny Cash is now represented in the halls of the U.S. Capitol.

A statue of Cash, who was born in Kingsland, Ark., and spent his childhood in Dyess in the Arkansas Delta, was unveiled Tuesday (Sept. 24) in Emancipation Hall at the national capitol complex. Arkansas’ Congressional delegation and Gov. Sarah Sanders joined other dignitaries and artist Kevin Kresse of Little Rock in revealing the 8-foot tall sculpture.

Cash is the first musician in history to be included in the National Statuary Hall Collection and his statue is one of two honoring Arkansas icons. Civil rights pioneer Daisy Bates, whose sculpture was unveiled earlier this year, also represents the state.

“There are statues of great people throughout the Capitol. Men and women of significant accomplishment. But today marks a first. Johnny Cash represents the first such statue of a professional musician, and while many statues are of people some of us have never heard of, rare will it be that someone will see this masterpiece and not know of the legendary singer-songwriter represented here. That makes me proud,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers.

“Now, Arkansas will have Daisy Bates forever surveying this historic hall and the ‘Man in Black,’ larger than life, in the Visitors Center. No one walking by these impressive memorials will fail to know who they were, what they did, and where they were from. That makes me Arkansas proud,” Womack added.

Cash’s achievements include sales of 90 million records across genres spanning country, rock, blues, folk and gospel. He has been inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He was also an activist in prison reform, Native American causes, while openly discussing his drug addiction and religious conversion to Christianity.

Gov. Sanders discussed the impact Cash had on her family from a music perspective.

“Many of you know that I grew up in politics. But what you may not know is that I also grew up in a musical family. To us – and to just about every other musical family in the South – after God and country came Johnny Cash. Even more than his songs, it’s the image of the man that I remember: the slicked-back hair of his early albums, the seasoned look of his later years,” Sanders said. “Johnny Cash was open about both the struggles and triumphs in his life. He was a hymn-singing Christian. But there were also times when he wrote that he felt like a ‘walking vision of death.’”

“Johnny Cash was an ordinary man and a superstar, all in one. It’s a story that could only happen in America. And it’s a story that Arkansas – the land of pioneers and patriots – is proud to tell,” Sanders added.