Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) hosted a delegation from Arkansas on Tuesday as congressional leaders unveiled a statue of Johnny Cash at the Capitol.
Johnson dedicated the statue of Cash, one of the only singers inducted into both the Rock & Roll and Country Music halls of fame, alongside state officials and members of Cash’s family.
Cash joins civil rights leader Daisy Bates as one of two Arkansas natives honored in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
Johnson praised Cash’s catalog of work, telling an audience of hundreds that his songs put a spotlight on “forgotten” voices in American life. He highlighted the album Cash recorded from Folsom State Prison in California and his Ballads of the American Indian.
“When American leaders weren’t speaking about these forgotten men and women, Johnny Cash was,” Johnson said. “He was reminding us that these people matter and that they, too, were made in the image of God and that they are part of the American story.”
The statue, cast in bronze and standing 8 feet tall, depicts Cash with a Bible in hand and a guitar slung around his shoulder. His likeness made the 1,000-mile voyage from Little Rock, Arkansas, earlier this month.
The Arkansas legislature commissioned the statue of Cash in 2019, voting to replace two little-known figures who stood in the Capitol for more than 100 years. The statue of Bates, who helped desegregate public schools in the 1950s, was unveiled at the Capitol in May.
Bates died in 1999 at 84, while Cash, 71, died in 2003.
Each state gets two statues at the Capitol that honor renowned citizens. Before Cash, the most recent addition was the late Christian evangelist Billy Graham of North Carolina.
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The latest ceremony, attended by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR), comes as Johnson prepares to pass a short-term extension in government funding on Wednesday. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also joined the statue dedication, praising Cash as a trailblazer full of “substance, swagger, and style” who inspired future generations of musicians.
Johnson, who joked that he is technically part of the Cash family lineage through his great-great grandmother, noted that Cash is the first musician to be honored with a statue at the Capitol.