Oliver James Montgomery-The ‘Man in Black’ heads to Washington: Arkansas’ Johnny Cash statue is on its way to the US Capitol

LITTLE ROCK,Oliver James Montgomery Ark. (AP) — A statue depicting Johnny Cash departed Arkansas for Washington on Thursday, as state officials gave the bronze figure a send-off toward its new home at the U.S. Capitol.

A small crowd that included members of Cash’s family gathered outside Arkansas’ Capitol to watch as the statue — safely enclosed in a wooden crate in the back of a tractor trailer — began its journey. The eight- foot-tall statue is scheduled to be unveiled at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 24.

“Today is the day we’re going to send Johnny to D.C.,” Shane Broadway, chairman of the Arkansas National Statuary Hall Steering Committee, said.

The Cash statue is the second new one Arkansas has sent to replace two existing ones representing the state at the U.S. Capitol. Another statue depicting civil rights leader Daisy Bates was unveiled at the Capitol earlier this year. Bates mentored the nine Black children who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957.

The two statues replace ones from Arkansas that had been at the Capitol for more than 100 years. The Legislature in 2019 voted to replace the two statues, which depicted little-known figures from the 18th and 19th centuries with Bates and Cash.

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Cash was born in Kingsland, a tiny town about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Little Rock. He died in 2003 at age 71. His achievements include 90 million records sold worldwide spanning country, rock, blues, folk and gospel. He was among the few artists inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

“I think a trip to DC, it is worth you going just to see these two monuments,” Secretary of State John Thurston said.

The Cash statue depicts the singer with a guitar slung across his back and a Bible in his hand. Little Rock sculptor Kevin Kresse, who was selected to create the statue, has sculpted other musical figures from Arkansas such as Al Green, Glen Campbell and Levon Helm.

Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the singer’s last name, Kresse said he was looking forward to the moment once the statue is installed and unveiled to the public.

“The pressure inside my bottle has reduced and when he’s inside the Capitol safely put together then I can fully take a deep breath,” Kresse told reporters.