On Thursday (8.01,) House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced that, in September, an honorary statue of Johnny Cash will be unveiled in the U.S. Capitol.
Born in 1932 in Kingsland, a small town some 60 miles south of Little Rock, Cash passed away from diabetes-related complications in 2003. he was 71 years old.
Having sold 90,000,000+ records worldwide in the country, blues, rock and gospel genres, the iconic musician was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. And throughout his illustrious career, Cash won 13 Grammy Awards and 9 Country Music Association Awards.
Sculpted by Little Rock artist Kevin Kresse, The 8-foot-tall statue of Cash, depicts the singer with a guitar slung across his back and a Bible in his hand.
The second of two Arkansas natives to be honored in the Capitol, a statue of Daisy Bates, the 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.
Johnny and Daisy’s statues have replaced those of Uriah Rose (a 19th-century attorney,) and James P. Clarke (a former governor and U.S. senator) in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which drew criticism over racist remarks Clarke made calling on the Democratic Party to preserve “white standards.”
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: Heinrich Klaffs