Johnny Cash statue at US Capitol set for September reveal

A statue of music legend Johnny Cash is set to be revealed at a dedication ceremony at the Capitol next month, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced Thursday.

The ceremony will take place in Emancipation Hall and will be an invite-only event, Johnson and Jeffries said in a “Dear Colleague” letter — which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also signed.

Members of the Cash family, members of the Arkansas congressional delegation and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) will also attend the ceremony, according to a press release from Johnson’s office.

Each state is permitted two statues in the U.S. Capitol, and Cash’s statue will be his home state’s second. In May, the state revealed a statue of civil rights icon Daisy Bates.

The unveiling of the two statues comes five years after then-Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) signed into law a bill calling for the replacement of two statues of figures who had ties to the Confederacy.

Hutchinson said at the time the goal was to “update the statues with representatives of our more recent history.”

Cash’s daughter, Rosanne Cash, also said in 2019, “We’re especially honored that a statue of my dad has been chosen to represent Arkansas in our nation’s Capitol.”