Johnny Cash is replacing one of the Capitol's Civil War statues

[DesertRat]

The times are changing, and so is the marble. Arkansas is leaving behind statues of the old guard and sending a few new faces to the U.S. Capitol.

Civil rights icon Daisy Gatson Bates and musician Johnny Cash will join the Statuary Hall collection in D.C., replacing 19th-century attorney Uriah Milton Rose and statesman James Paul Clarke. The governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, made the plan official by signing a bill last week.

Both Rose and Clarke were political figures during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Though he opposed secession, Rose was loyal to Arkansas, a Confederate state during the war. Clarke, whose descendants have grappled with his racist views, was a United States senator and governor of the state.

At least one Arkansan in Washington — Republican Rep. French Hill — praised his state’s new direction.
“Arkansas icons Daisy Bates and Johnny Cash are worthy additions to the U.S. Capitol statue collection. I applaud the decision by Gov. Hutchinson and the General Assembly to recognize their historic contributions and preserve their inspiring legacies for future generations,” Hill said.

https://www.rollcall.com/news/hoh/arkansas-bids-farewell-controversial-statues

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. Brilliant!

More of this, please!

[gratuitous]

2. An excellent idea

Isn't it funny how creative solutions can get?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. Guess the MAGAts are going to burn all their Johnny Cash records now

[DesertRat]

4. LOL

[GulfCoast66]

5. Holy Cow! I spent my formative years in Arkansas. Never expected this.

Arkansas was always a little more nuanced than its Deep South brethren, Governor Faubus aside. The mountain folks elected republicans back when republicans in the south were the non-racist. Yeah, I remember those days.

But since the religious right melding with the republican party they are just apeshit crazy. Cause they are a religious folk. I know, because I was one of them.

So this is a surprise.

Good thing most Arkansans only know ‘Ring of Fire’ and not ‘Man in Black’. If not onto country music, google the first playing of Man in Black. The video still brings tears. I think it was somewhere in Ohio.

Johnny Cash would have hated Trump with every fiber in his being.

[Dave Starsky]

7. It was at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

And, yes, it's amazing. John R. Cash was a total boss.

[Mc Mike]

6. Johnny Cash Genuine Class.

[GoCubsGo]

8. Excellent choices.

It surprises me that Asa Hutchinson had a hand in this, but give credit where credit is due.

[VOX]

9. Cash is an true American icon, a poet who revealed bedrock human truth in the stories of his songs.

He’s a unique, outsized American character, on the level of the likes of Muhammad Ali, John F. Kennedy, or Frank Sinatra.

Some of Cash’s best work was made late in his life. His American Recordings series is stripped down, raw and plain; his rumbling baritone voice injecting new truth into some old standards, and beyond.