WASHINGTON, USA — Johnny Cash, a country music legend, and civil rights leader Daisy Gaston Bates will soon be memorialized as statues in the U.S. Capitol building.
Their statues will replace two Confederate figures who have been in the Capitol for nearly 100 years.
Each state is allowed to keep two statues of historic figures in the National Sanctuary Hall of the Capitol Building, and Arkansas will be represented by Bates and Cash.
Asa Hutchinson, the governor of Arkansas, signed a bill on April 12 that replaces the state's current statues of Uriah M. Rose and James Paul Clarke.
Hutchinson said the legislature believed Bates and Cash represented Arkansas' more recent history, according to a press release.
"The history of the civil rights struggle in Arkansas is an essential part of our story that says much about courage and who we are as a state," Hutchinson said in the release. "Daisy Bates was a key person in that story. She continues to inspire us."
According to Hutchinson, Cash was also greatly influenced Arkansas and its culture.
"Music is a big deal in Arkansas, and Johnny Cash is a big deal in music," Hutchinson said. "Those two great historic figures who made such a difference in Arkansas in their own way are appropriate people to tell part of the story of Arkansas in our nation’s [Capitol]."
