Johnny Cash Statue (Washington, D.C.)

A bronze statue of Johnny Cash represents the state of Arkansas in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol building in Washington D.C. Each US state is entitled to place two statues of distinguished citizens in the Capitol; Arkansas selected Cash as one of its representatives, a choice that speaks to his outsized cultural significance and his deep identification with the state where he was born and raised. The statue was sculpted by Kim Wortham-Roberts and unveiled in 2019, placed in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center.

The selection of Cash -- a man who wore black in solidarity with the poor and the imprisoned, who recorded live albums at Folsom Prison and San Quentin, who sang about the working poor and the dispossessed -- as an official representative of Arkansas in the national halls of government carries a particular irony and aptness. His music was always political, even when it wasn't explicitly so, and placing him in the Capitol acknowledges that popular music can represent a people's character as accurately as any politician.

The United States Capitol is open to visitors via the Capitol Visitor Center, which includes Emancipation Hall where the Cash statue is located. Tours of the Capitol and its statuary collection are available through the office of members of Congress or through the Capitol Visitor Center directly. Washington D.C. has several other music heritage sites, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Cash statue in the Capitol is among the most unexpected.