Johnny Cash statue installed in U.S. Capitol

Over 100 members of the Cash family attended the Tuesday unveiling of a statue of musician Johnny Cash in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. The so-called “Man in Black” is the first musician to be honored with a statue in the Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson said at the ceremony. Cash embodied the American spirit with his story of redemption, struggle, and pressing ahead, Johnson said. The bronze statue showed Cash looking down with a guitar across his back and a Bible in his hand.

Cash was unbending about his commitment to nonviolence and his daily choice to choose love, Cash’s daughter, Rosanne, said at the ceremony. He would always tell his children many times in moments of conflict or anger to choose love over hate, she continued. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders also spoke during the ceremony honoring Cash, who is one of the two figures chosen to represent Arkansas in the hall.

How was Cash chosen? Arkansas leaders chose Cash and civil rights leader Daisy Bates to replace previous statutes that represented the state in the hall for over a century. The pair replaced the now-little-known lawyer Uriah M. Rose, whose life spanned the 19th and 20th centuries, and former politician James P. Clarke.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the unveiling of Billy Graham’s Capitol statue earlier this year.