The U.S. Capitol Rotunda features statues of presidents from George Washington to Ronald Reagan.
The walls of the Capitol are lined with inventors like Thomas Edison of Ohio and Philo Farnsworth of Utah, who is credited with creating television.
There are statues of American heroes, from Helen Keller to Amelia Earhart to astronaut Jack Swigert.
In Congress, like in baseball, there's always next year.
Religious figures also appear, such as California's Junipero Serra and Hawaii's Father Damian.
Civil rights figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are well represented.
There are also writers. Will Rogers of Oklahoma and Willa Cather of Nebraska.
But there were no musicians.
Until now.
He is known simply as “The Man in Black.”
“Johnny Cash walked that line. It wasn't a straight line. It was more like the Arkansas River. It was jagged. But it always moved forward. “I was doing it,” he said.
Johnny Cash in 1966 next to his newly unveiled statue at Emancipation Hall. (Getty Images)
Perhaps this is an example of Congress moving forward by branching out into the arts and pop culture.
“Some may ask, 'Why would a statue of a musician be erected in the halls of our great American republic?'” asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). “And the answer is actually very simple: America is about more than law and politics.”
Cash's statue is a new addition to the Capitol collection. Each state enacts two statutes in its capitol. Individual states decide who they represent. The Arkansas State Legislature voted to replace both statues in 2019. Earlier this year, authorities removed a statue of Uriah Rhodes. He was a Confederate sympathizer, had ties to Hillary Clinton and other Clinton administration figures, and founded the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. In its place was a statue of civil rights activist Daisy Bates. The Johnny Cash statue replaces the late racist U.S. Sen. James Clark (D-Arkansas).
The statue greets you with the singer's signature golden-throated introduction: “Hello. I'm Johnny Cash.”
The statue depicts the singer clutching a Bible in his left hand. A Martin D-35 acoustic guitar is slung over Cash's back, neck facing down. He is wearing a tuxedo shirt with frills. A boxback's coat hangs around him like a cloak. And of course, there are cowboy boots.
Shortly after removing the cloth from the statue to reveal Cash, his sister, Joanne Cash, approached the statue. Joan, now blind, spent several minutes touching and feeling the outline of the bronze statue, now forever memorialized.
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The statue symbolized Cash's dichotomy. Zen-like qualities. Yin and yang. light and darkness.
“He was open about straddling the line between clean-cut Johnny and beaten-down Cash,” Saunders said. “Johnny is a nice guy. Cash is the cause of all the problems.”
The governor noted that Cash had recorded albums at Folsom State Prison and San Quentin.
“I can imagine that he too was looking out at the prison crowd and seeing himself staring back at him,” Sanders said.
She added that Cash “felt like a vision of walking death.”
Johnson said that other than Cash, “no one else will sing in Folsom Prison.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana holds up a photo of musicians Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley during an unveiling ceremony at Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, September 24, 2024 in Washington, DC, USA. . Several bipartisan members of Congress unveiled a statue of iconic Arkansas musician Johnny Cash in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the Capitol. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Johnny Cash sang about a farmer being washed away by a flood in “Five Feet High and Rising.” Johnson said these songs were likely the most important in his repertoire because they focused on “forgotten men and women.”
These were some of the most important songs in Cash's repertoire.
Outside of his “Man in Black” stage persona, Johnny Cash has always been shrouded in darkness. It presented devastating lyrics that bordered on hyperbole, if they weren't so relatable.
“I taught the weeping willow how to cry,” wrote Big River's Cash.
“I'm going to let you down. I'm going to hurt you,” Cash in Heart admitted.
“I fell into a ring of fire,” Cash sings in one of his most famous songs. “And it burns, burns, burns.”
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Simple.
But it's brutally true.
“He was the Shakespeare of the South,” said Mr. Cash's daughter, singer Roseanne Cash. “He inspired countless poems. He was a flawed but deeply humble, kind and compassionate man with a wonderfully generous spirit.”
His daughter said Mr. Cash “loved people who failed and made terrible mistakes, but they admitted their failures to God and to themselves, because he himself fought his whole life.” Because I knew the darkness that had come my way.”
But despite his inner demons, Cash's daughter said she learned a special lesson from her father.
“Many times in moments of conflict or anger, he said to us children, 'Children, you can choose love or hate. I choose love,'” Roseanne said. I did.
Johnny Cash performing on stage (GAB Archive/Red Ferns)
In fact, these words are carved into the statue's concrete base for everyone to read.
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Cash influenced generations of artists. He notes that the Man in Black took ownership of shades long before Jay-Z released the Black Album or Black Sabbath essentially invented the heavy metal genre. he said.
“Snoop Doggy Dogg put it another way. He called Johnny Cash 'a real American gangster,'” Jeffries said, drawing laughs. “That's a compliment from Snoop Doggy Dogg.”
Lawmakers also recite Cash's lyrics.
Republican Rep. Steve Womack, R-Arkansas, cited Cash's country hit “A Boy Named Sue,” saying, “'He's got gravel in his guts and saliva in his eyes. “I loved that song. I loved it so much that I memorized the lyrics.”
And while many people who visit Congress have never heard of the people honored with the Capitol statue, everyone has heard of Johnny Cash.
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“You'll hear Johnny Cash in classic country. You'll hear Johnny Cash in classic rock. You'll hear Johnny Cash in gospel,” said Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark. “It's a testament to his ability to transcend musical genres.”
Johnny Cash sang, “I've been everywhere.”
Now he's going to the U.S. Capitol.
But he will stay here.
Permanent resident.
