Photo Credit: Kevin Kresse
A statue of singer Johnny Cash will be the first likeness of a musician to debut at a dedication ceremony at the US Capitol next month.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) have announced that a statue of singing legend Johnny Cash will be unveiled at a dedicated ceremony at the Capitol next month.
The ceremony will take place in the Emancipation Hall and will be an invitation-only event, according to Johnson and Jeffries in a letter also signed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Members of the Cash family, as well as members of the Arkansas congressional delegation and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) will also attend the ceremony.
Each state is permitted two statues in the US Capitol, and Cash’s statue will be the second for his home state of Arkansas. In May, the state unveiled a statue of civil rights icon Daisy Bates. Notably, Johnny Cash’s statue will be the first of a musician to debut at the US Capitol.
The news comes five years after then-Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) signed a bill into law that called for the replacement of two statues of figures with ties to the Confederacy. At the time, Hutchinson said the goal was to “update the statues with representatives of our more recent history.”
“We’re especially honored that a statue of my dad has been chosen to represent Arkansas in our nation’s Capitol,” Rosanne Cash, Johnny’s daughter with his first wife, Vivian, said in 2019.
Sculptor Kevin Kresse originally posted photos of the finished statue to his Instagram account in December, 2022, writing: “Although I finished this 8ft. tall sculpture of Johnny Cash 2-3 months ago, I couldn’t take it to the foundry until we received approval from Washington, D.C. for the entire packet — sculpture, pedestal, inscriptions, engineering, etc. Yesterday we received ‘official’ approval from D.C.”
“Although I don’t know when the unveiling will be, I do know that statues of Daisy Bates and Johnny Cash will be the new representatives of Arkansas in the US Capitol,” Kresse continued. “I couldn’t be happier with these choices for Arkansas. I’m also extremely proud to be a native son of Arkansas, getting this opportunity to sculpt an Arkansas icon for the nation’s Capitol.”
