Johnny Cash Statue Replaces Monument to White Supremacist Governor at US Capitol

Johnny Cash Statue Unveiled at U.S. Capitol Building — A statue of country music singer and Arkansas native Johnny Cash is unveiled as US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (2nd L), Democrat of New York, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (3rd L), alongside members of the Cash family, watch in Emancipation Hall on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on September 24, 2024. Saul Loeb/Getty Images

Visitors to the U.S. Capitol can now find iconic singer-songwriter Johnny Cash among the statues honoring notable Americans from each state.

Representing Cash's home state of Arkansas, the Capitol building's latest addition marks the first time a professional musician has been included. Members of the Cash family joined congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle at the statue's unveiling ceremony Tuesday.

Each state donates two statues to the collection at the Capitol building, and Cash is the second sent by Arkansas this year. Previously a pair of obscure 19th century figures -- attorney Uriah Rose, and former Arkansas Gov. and Sen. James P. Clarke -- represented Arkansas, but the state voted in 2019 to have those statues replaced.

The great-great-grandson of James P. Clarke was among Arkansans who called for the change. In the Arkansas Times, Tucker wrote "the time has come for a conversation about who should represent Arkansas...for the time in which we live now." During his political career, Clarke advocated for the preservation of "white standards of civilization," an attitude Tucker disavowed "regardless of the time."

Arkansas unveiled the state's first updated statue at the Capitol earlier this year: a depiction of civil rights advocate, Daisy Bates. A leader in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Bates organized the group known as "The Little Rock Nine," comprised of nine Black students who pioneered desegregation in Arkansas after the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling against segregation in public schools.

The monument to Cash is the work of Natural State artist Kevin Kresse, who completed the piece with a sculpted guitar worn across the legendary musician's back, and a bible held at his side.

"Some may ask: Why should a musician have a statue here in the halls of the great American republic?" Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at the unveiling ceremony as reported by Associated Press. "The answer is pretty simple. It's because America is about more than laws and politics."

"This man was a living redemption story," Cash's daughter, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, said at the unveiling ceremony. "He encountered darkness and met it with love."