Five years after the Arkansas General Assembly approved replacing the state’s two statues in the U.S. Capitol with civil rights leader Daisy Bates and Johnny Cash, the singer/songwriter’s statue is about to be unveiled. A ceremony is set for Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 11 a.m. in Washington.
A clay model of Kevin Kresse’s statue of Johnny Cash as it appeared on Oct. 20, 2022, while he was working on it in a studio at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Photo: Michael Hibblen
As I start this blog entry, it’s just before dawn on Sunday, Sept. 22, and I’m about to begin a two-day road trip to our nation’s Capitol. After five years of following every step in the process — and getting to know sculptor Kevin Kresse, who was selected to make the eight-foot tall bronze statue — I wouldn’t miss it.
The statue, secure inside a wooden crate, left Arkansas on Sept. 5 to begin its own journey in the back of a tractor-trailer. A send-off ceremony was held outside the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock. Below is a video with highlights that I shot that morning.
On “Arkansas Week,” the program I oversee at Arkansas PBS, we previewed the Washington unveiling ceremony by talking with Kresse and the state’s Statuary Hall Steering Committee Chair Shane Broadway, who has overseen each step in the process, including selecting the artists for each project. We also included clips with daughter Rosanne Cash, who has raved about Kresse’s work in capturing her dad.
Then in the second segment, host Steve Barnes reflected on Bates, whose statue was unveiled earlier in the year, by talking with Janis Kearney. She had known Bates well and eventually became publisher of the Arkansas State Press, which had been run by Bates and her husband L.C. Bates. Mrs. Bates is best known for mentoring the nine Black students who desegregated Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957.
I’ll eventually write an update after the ceremony, while you can find links to my previous reports here. Below is a link from U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson to watch the live ceremony. His office had to approve the statue design and other factors before it was finally cast in bronze.
Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, 36-year broadcasting veteran, photographer, interested in radio, TV and railroad history, author and host of the book and podcast series Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas.
