(birds chirping) (soft music) - [Chairman] Senator Wallace, you're recognized to present Senate Bill 75.

- Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Committee.

When I came back from Vietnam in '73, I got to make my first trip to Washington DC.

I was so excited, and I went into the National Hall of Statues, and I saw folks like Thomas Jefferson.

I saw Frederick Douglass.

And I got to Arkansas and I thought to myself, "Who are they?"

The statues that are there now, Mr. U.M.

Rose and James P. Clark, I'm assuming that they were put there for a good reason.

Are we removing history when we take them away?

I believe that Arkansas needs statues that when our folks go to our Capitol, they can walk in and they recognize those individuals.

And so that's the purpose of this bill.

- [Senator] But if we don't put a military person up there that has sacrificed their life, I think we've made a grave error.

- [Speaker] Arkansas African American legislators from 1868 to 1893.

- [Speaker] But we also have a number of Medal of Honor recipients that would be great to put on statues.

- [Speaker] A handicapped American, most decorated ever soldier from Arkansas.

- [Speaker] I think we should honor people who really did great things for our state.

- [Speaker] And I want to talk to you about Daisy Bates.

Daisy was born poor.

Every day when those nine children met, they met at her house.

- [Speaker] She was probably the most significant female in the history of Arkansas.

- It's an honor today to present the chance for her to stand in the US capitol and represent Arkansas.

After what she stood for in Arkansas history in the '50s, and she stood for the Little Rock Nine and the integration in Little Rock.

She came up with master plans to get those nine students into that school.

- [Speaker] And now you have Johnny Cash.

He came up just as poor as could be, and he came through all types of hard, hard, hard things in his life.

But he endured.

- He was an excellent example of the tenacity, the spirit, the heart, the don't give up of Arkansas.

I'd ask for a good vote.

- So the number one choice for this ballot was Daisy Bates.

It looks like Johnny Cash walks the line.

So congratulations to those two great Arkansans.

By vote of 71 yeas, 12 nays, and six present, the bill is passed.

- [Daniel] This is "All Things Considered" on KYR 89.1.

I'm Daniel Breen.

Statues of singer Johnny Cash and civil rights leader Daisy Bates will represent Arkansas in the US Capitol.

Today, it was made official with the stroke of a pen.

- Whenever you take guests through Statuary Hall, we want our memories through our statues to tell the story of Arkansas.

And I believe that our story is well represented by these two historic figures, Johnny Cash and Daisy Bates.

(audience applauding) (wind blowing) - The first part of my career was as a painter doing gallery shows.

And so really back then it used to be, "Oh, I didn't know you sculpted."

Everybody just knew me as a painter.

And now if I ever do any painting, people go, "Oh, I didn't know you painted."

They only know me as a sculptor.

The thing I've noticed about Arkansas is growing up here, I think there's such a paradox between the streak of independence and this inferiority complex about other places.

And I think it's important that we see people in the community who have done great things or are doing things that are helping to show people that these amazing artists who have so much to say and have so much influence all around the world came from these very humble beginnings.

Thinking about all these amazing musicians that are from Arkansas.

And so that's when I started on my own doing a project of sculpting bust.

And I started with Al Green from Forest City, obviously Johnny Cash from Dyess, Sister Rosetta Tharp from Cotton Plant, Arkansas, Louis Jordan, from 10 miles down the road in Brinkley.

It's a passion of mine.

And so when I'm working, when I'm sculpting, to be passionate about your subject really helps the whole process, when you're really emotionally invested in what you're working on.

(audience applauding) - When I started out as a sculptor, I was on food stamps and rent assistance and heat assistance, and basically the picture of a starving artist with this young family living in a house that was just about to fall over, a rental house.

And I went for these commissions that I probably shouldn't even have went for.

And one of them was the Sarah Winnemucca sculpture for the US Capitol Building.

And that's really what started off and snowballed this whole career in art and sculpture.

And for those of you who don't know, Sarah Winnemucca was the first Native American woman to write a book in English.

She started a school for Paiute children that was the first of its kind and stood on her people's behalf for justice when there was great injustice happening to the Paiute people at that time.

So I started and cut my teeth as a sculptor on this type of work that represented injustice in the world that was actually sponsored by the legal system at the time.

Most of my figures that I create on my own, most of those stories are about destiny.

A lot of them are about our path in life and how we don't see the end, but we're accomplishing these purposes on this winding road.

And we can never tell where we're really going, but there's an ultimate destiny to it.

I like that theme.

I like that idea.

So.

(soft music) (Benjamin laughs) - [Reporter] Ahead of an expected decision Monday, five artists who want the honor of making statues of civil rights leader Daisy Bates and music legend Johnny Cash, which will be on display in the US Capitol, presented models of what they envisioned their works would look like.

- It was a national competition.

At one point, the newspaper listed all 35 or six sculptors that had entered.

One evening I went through and just started looking them up.

And I was like, "Wow."

They were all top-notch wonderful sculptors.

- [Benjamin] Well, the importance of Statuary Hall is something special in and of itself.

Daisy Bates, I was just completely thrilled and encapsulated by her story.

And I thought, "Man, I hope with everything in me that I get to do this sculpture."

- The history of doing the Arkansas musicians, having already sculpted Johnny, in a sense, I had this kind of sense of destiny.

Like I have to do this.

I mean, I just have to get it.

And I was telling Kurt Nowman at the Secretary of State's office, I said, "Kurt, if I don't get this, would you please just text me?"

I said, "I promise I'll call you back."

And so you know I got it.

But I said, "I just don't know if I can hear the words that you didn't get the commission."

So I was kind of on pins and needles and was out.

And actually I was picking up some lunch and then I see Kurt Nowman, Secretary of State's office on my phone.

And I was like, "Oh God, I don't wanna cry in public."

(laughs) - I'm the youngest ever to have a piece in Statuary Hall, and then the only living artist to have three, and now it'll be four with the sculpture of Daisy Bates.

It makes me feel very humbled and very special because they're entrusting me to do a sculpture that represents the Black community in a dignified way in the US Capitol.

That's a lot for me to take my hands and make sure that I do something that they're proud of when they walk in there, when they show their kids and grandkids that sculpture, when they stand in front of it.

- And so now, a little bit about me.

I'm from Little Rock.

I was born here.

I was part of the integration to the elementaries when that started in 1972.

So I take this story very serious.

I'm very passionate about this story.

This crisis reshaped America.

It changes the way we're doing things today because of what happened here in 1957.

The Supreme Court says now we can go to school together, drink out the same water fountains, use the same restrooms, use the same hospitals, swear in on the same Bibles, use the same buses?

A lot of white people were upset, y'all, here in 1954.

But in 1954 is when this Black woman named Daisy Bates really gets involved in the story.

Does anybody know who Mrs. Bates was?

Well, I'm glad you asked because I'll tell you.

(group laughs) - [Daisy] The system says in effect that Negro is a citizen of his country, that he should pay taxes, defend his country from its enemies, but he should not vote, have equal protection under the law, equality of education, or job opportunities, and that he should not have access to public eating places, parks, even hospitals.

Every Negro in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama understand the system.

I've lived on it all my life.

- Daisy Bates grew up and was born in this very, very small town in southwest Arkansas called Huttig.

Her mother was reportedly raped and killed and thrown into the mill pond that the lumber mills use.

Reportedly, there were several white men who raped her and killed her.

(somber music) Some neighbors took her in, they adopted her, the Smiths, and Mr. Smith, she absolutely adored.

She became full of bitterness.

She hated whites most of her childhood.

It wasn't until Mr. Smith died, her adopted father, that she finally came to terms with looking for ways to make her hate and her bitterness work for her, because that is what he asked her to do, get rid of the hate, get rid of the bitterness because it will destroy you.

And she was smart enough to know that if she worked hard enough to find another way to deal with it, that she would, and she did.

- [Benjamin] Well, I've been driving across the country with the Daisy Bates sculpture so that I could bring her here to Little Rock to work on her onsite and get the public in and students in to enjoy and see the process.

We had weather in Wyoming, snow, and then went from that to tornadoes in Kansas and Oklahoma.

But we made it here safe and sound.

One, two, three.

Right there.

That's good.

Okay, now let's wheel her in as quickly as we can because the sun is not good for you.

- Now comes the time that we've been waiting for for quite some time, to give an nice welcome to Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two.

(audience applauding) - We have a lot of requests for this one.

This was also in our album, and we hope all of you enjoy.

It kind of tells a story about how we used to have to live or how we used to live.

We loved it very much back in Arkansas on the cotton farm, how we kind of depended on cotton for a living, and look forward to picking time.

♪ I got cotton in the bottom land ♪ ♪ It's up and growing and I got a good stand ♪ ♪ My good wife and them kids of mine ♪ ♪ Gonna get new shoes come picking time ♪ ♪ Get new shoes come picking time ♪ - Johnny Cash's early life was very much deep poverty, and cotton was king in the south, but it was king in so many ways that it controlled your life.

It was really, really hard work.

And it was 10 hours a day easy.

(gentle music) - And he lost his brother when he was 12 and Jack was 14.

And that was the fulcrum of his life.

I think that Jack's death resonated through the rest of his life.

It informed his work, it informed his compassion, his recognition of the suffering of others because he deeply suffered.

And from that was born a great artist.

- Good morning, John.

Here we go.

The interesting thing is for this, it was the first time that I saw really top-notch sculptors coming in, and we're all putting our vision in for what these pieces, what we think they ought to be.

I think technically that the other sculptors are probably better technicians than I am, but it helped me see objectively what I bring to the table.

And I think it's that... Really me focusing on the interior life and the emotional part that I'm really, really after.

And that that's my primary goal.

(train horn blowing) - [Johnny] I was born in the cotton patch in the woods about four miles north of Kingsland, Arkansas on February 26th, 1932.

My father was an itinerant worker.

He rode the rails and hopped the box cars going, looking for work.

1932 was a hard time for everybody in this country.

And I grew up by the railroad tracks, and maybe that's why I have an affinity for the trains.

And I was always looking for my daddy to come back home.

♪ Prepared where the saints abide ♪ ♪ Just over in the glory land ♪ And I long to be by my Savior's side ♪ ♪ Just over in the glory land - Johnny, when he was in the service, he got well known for his chili.

And June couldn't eat it because it was so spicy.

So she had a mild diversion.

So that's sort of what we did.

We have a kick-up here and then we have one that's just sort of regular.

- I got the pot.

I can't be doing the baby stuff.

- I don't get spicy.

It makes my head sweat.

(laughs) (gentle music) - Boy, didn't the Lord give us a great day?

In our family, it was kind of hard for us to comprehend about Johnny's fame.

And we heard the Living Legend, the Man in Black, all these things.

And we always wondered what has made him so famous.

Well he brought "The Johnny Cash Show" to Pine Bluff.

When I got there, there was a young woman sitting behind me.

When her friend got there, another young woman, she asked her, she said, "I didn't even know you liked country music."

She said, "I don't, but I like Johnny Cash."

And she said, "Well what songs do you like?"

She said, "Oh, the songs don't matter.

I just like to look at him and hear him.

And he makes me think about home.

And he makes me wish that I could go back."

And I thought, that night, I looked around at the people and I realized that everybody at "The Johnny Cash Show" that night, he was only singing to them.

Only singing to them.

- I like to sing folk songs for the different folks.

I just love to sing.

The very soul of music, folk music is, folk songs are, always have been, I think always will be.

You can go a little to the right or a little to the left, murder them or jazz them up, but they're gonna always be the backbone of music, I think.

- [Interviewer] Why is that?

- Because they're of the people.

- It's a lot more peaceful than when first days of school.

When we believed that when I was a teenager that I'd have a Central High School bench.

Mrs. Bates, as I always knew her, I used to deliver the newspaper that she and her husband, L.C.

Bates, published.

It was a weekly, and it was the only African American statewide paper that went around the entire state of Arkansas.

And they always had reports on issues of race, civil rights news.

- [Daisy] A few years ago in Little Rock, Arkansas, we tried to speak the truth in my newspaper.

We talked about freedom and justice and human dignity and the dignity of all mankind.

- And I always found that Daisy Bates was someone who was trying to open up the future.

She was somebody that wouldn't let go until she saw some progress for somebody other than herself.

- So one of the most amazing things that happened for Daisy Bates was when she became president of the NAACP for Arkansas, which was quite unusual because women did not become president of the NAACP.

And the national NAACP comes down and says, "We need to see if we can get this done in Little Rock.

That would mean a lot for the the national civil rights struggle."

Daisy Bates now knows what her real mission is gonna be.

And that's going to be integrating schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

- So Mrs. Bates, she approaches the school board.

The board basically tells Mrs. Bates, "We don't care what you want, go away."

Supreme Court come down here telling us what to do here in Little Rock.

- [Reporter] On September 5th, 1957, a United States court order to desegregate Little Rock Central High School was openly defied by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus.

- I must state here in all sincerity that it is my opinion, yes, even a conviction that it will not be possible to restore or to maintain order and protect the lives and property of the citizens if forcible integration is carried out tomorrow in the schools of this community.

- [Charles] Well here's the man of the hour.

(laughs) - Welcome to Mrs. Bates' home.

This was used as the command post for the desegregation in Little Rock.

- This is 1207 West 28th Street.

If there had been no 1207 West 28th Street, there would've been no Central High because this is where the students were.

And some of the pictures around here, they're all spread out.

And Mrs. Bates is lecturing them on what will happen the next day or what happened that day and keeping them encouraged.

- This is when a cross was burned in the yard.

A brick was thrown through, and wrapped around the brick, stated, "It'll be dynamite the next time."

Now would you have stayed in this house or do you agree that they were a brave couple?

- Very brave.

- Mm-hm.

- When I was very young, we moved up to Northeast Arkansas, to Mississippi County.

I mean, that's where I really grew up.

They call it sharecropping.

And these are sharecropper houses, bungalows here.

Most of them are what they call shotgun shacks.

That's three rooms in a row, front room, a middle room, and the back room.

For us, we'd listen to the radio.

- [Family Member] I thought of that very thing.

You used to sit there with your ear moved to that radio.

Remember at night, daddy would say, "Turn it down, John."

- [Interviewer] Well you had a pretty hard life.

- Yeah, in many ways, it was a pretty happy life, though, and it's been a very full life.

- [Interviewer] You think that perhaps your background has influenced the way you sing?

- Yes, definitely, because I sing about, I sing about a lot of life as I knew it.

And if I didn't know about it, I couldn't sing about it.

- Johnny Cash, 1932-2003, was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Successful with country, rock and roll, folk, blues, and gospel music, Cash sold over 90 million albums during his long career.

Several of his songs reflect his hard scramble farming youth in Dyess Colony where locals knew him simply as J.R.

They set the stage up here next to the house for the annual Johnny Cash Heritage Festival.

In my little story that I created in my head, Johnny's come back to his home and is gonna play at the festival.

So he's toured the home, which has been refurbished for the first time since he left as a young man.

So he's gone through the home.

So he's been flooded with all these memories.

So he's thinking about all the great times that he had with his family here.

He's thinking about the tragic times when his hero brother Jack was killed in that saw mill accident.

He thinks about his dad telling him that it should have been him that died instead of his brother.

All of these are going that I think that are going through his head.

(gentle music) Well I think growing up in a place like this does give you that freedom of it's all out there, it's your story to write down.

I can't help but think that the things that people related to about him and why people around the world, because everybody has that sense of they're just a little kid from wherever.

- [Benjamin] And so she was this life of total poverty and grew up in rural Arkansas.

And Johnny Cash was a life of total poverty and grew up in rural Arkansas, which is really like in essence, like blue collar Americana.

To see them take that and reach heights for the greater good of everyone is really something that I admire in both of their characters.

I feel like what I'm really kind of after is that you're getting him in this moment of really deep thoughts, these recollections where almost, you're almost feeling a little uncomfortable in a sense when you come up that you've interrupted someone at a very private moment.

And that makes it more universal.

Everybody can relate to those emotions.

Everybody can't relate to being a world-famous icon, but everybody's carried burdens that have haunted them their whole lives.

(gentle music) - My dad had struggled with drug addiction on and off for his whole life.

And he wasn't the greatest guy in the world when he was under the influence.

And he owned it all.

He never made excuses for himself and was committed to a kind of redemption of his darker qualities.

- [Johnny] I became a person When I'd run out of prescriptions and there wasn't a doctor handy, I would resort to anything to get them.

I'd steal them from my friends, my loved ones, if I knew where there were any, I'd get them.

So the pills took over.

They completely took control of my life.

The feelings and the love of my loved ones mattered not in the least.

- [Speaker] Underneath that form is (indistinct) (people chattering) - So I'm gonna say like right about here is where it would be.

I found a lapel pin for the NAACP online that's 1956.

I couldn't find a '57 one.

So I changed the lettering to 1957 at the bottom.

- [Daisy] It was something you couldn't say, "Well this is what they did in Virginia.

This is what they did in Louisiana."

No pattern, no precedent that I could go by.

I just had to go, to move, just move on.

And I was so afraid of actual murder.

And I knew if anything happened to the first person, I was responsible for all us.

They were saying, "Why don't you give up?

Are you gonna continue?

What are you going to do?

Do you think the price is worth it?"

And then at times I'd wonder, and we were fighting vicious forces, I mean the whole state, and I just didn't see how how we could win.

- [Reporter] President Eisenhower ordered in federal troops to support the rights of the Negro students.

To the eyes of the world, the fact of violence tended to obscure the true meaning of Little Rock.

Its importance was that it demonstrated to those who opposed integration that they would ultimately have to give way.

Negroes' rights would be upheld by the federal government.

(gentle music) - Welcome to the first day of the best day of your teaching career.

(group cheering) You have entered the big top called Daisy Bates Elementary School.

Again, we are the home of the Tigers where we do our best to elevate the excellence of our scholars and our staff.

And we are here walking in legacy as we strive to do right by kids.

I graduated from Little Rock Central High School, and, 27 years later, I became the principal of Daisy Bates Elementary School.

What kind of connection is that?

That was predestination in operation.

Good morning, good morning, Valeria and Sister.

Have a good day.

- And when it was 1957 and the nine of us showed up to Central High School, she was there to step in to offer a support in any that she possibly can.

It was at her home that we met, usually in the mornings to go to school because it was unsafe for us to go to school alone.

We gathered as a group at the Bates' home and we were put into army vehicles and went up to school in a convoy.

- But because of what they did and many, many, many, many others did across the south, that's why we're able to be in a classroom, to be in school together.

- And all the old folks kept saying, "You never saw a flood like we're gonna have if that Mississippi River breaks the levee at Memphis."

Well one morning that levee broke and that water come right up over the cotton patch right up to the front door of the house.

And I heard my daddy hollering, asking my mama said, "How high is the water, mama?"

Five feet high and rising.

"How high is the water, papa?"

She said, "It's five feet high and rising."

♪ Well the reels are washed out more of the town ♪ ♪ We gotta ahead for higher ground, ♪ ♪ Can't come back till the water goes down ♪ ♪ Five feet high and rising ♪ Well it's five feet high and rising ♪ (crowd cheering) (upbeat music) ♪ Well there's things that never will be right ♪ ♪ I know ♪ And things need change in everywhere you go ♪ ♪ But till we start to make a move ♪ ♪ To make a few things right ♪ You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

♪ ♪ I'd love to wear a rainbow every day ♪ ♪ To tell the world that everything's okay ♪ ♪ But maybe I can carry off ♪ A little darkness on my back ♪ Till things are brighter ♪ I'm the man in black (audience applauding) - We will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we're free at last."

(crowd cheering) - But it wasn't until probably about 10 years ago that I realized that Daisy Bates was the only female that actually spoke at the March on Washington.

- Thank you very much, this is indeed a happy day for me.

You know, sometime in your life when you're fighting for freedom and human dignity, your faith fails you.

And you wonder whether democracy is worth fighting for or whether you can ever be an American citizen in this country.

But something happens that renews that faith in democracy, and in America and its people.

That happened to me in 1957 when the students in Little Rock walked alone through the mob.

You cried with us, but we had to walk it alone.

But your presence here today testifies that no child will have to walk alone through a mob in any city or hamlet of this country because you will be there walking with them.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - Just realizing and thinking of this real space and place where all of this happened and that it wasn't really that long ago, that's the sad part about it.

(person speaking indistinctly) - If she didn't do what she did, wouldn't have ever been a Little Rock Nine.

This woman given up everything for kids to get an education.

And just think, if she hadn't did what she did, where would we be at right now?

I hope you'll come in and see it.

- Awesome, awesome, awesome.

I can't wait, man.

I can't wait.

- Oh that's great.

- Good job.

- See how that looks.

(person speaking indistinctly) Yeah, that's all right.

It's just gonna make sure I come up enough at the end.

That's about the right size.

- [Kevin] I decided to put the Bible in with the sculpture because I think Johnny's struggles are well-known.

And... For me, his faith was the thing that really would pick him back up again when he was down.

(gentle music) - If you've ever been in a country church, the sound of that piano will probably bring back some happy memories for you.

That's the sound I had accompanying me the first time I ever sang in public when I was 12 years old back at the little church in Dyess, Arkansas.

And here's the song I sang, and here is the lady that accompanied me on that song, my mother.

(audience applauding) ♪ Oh they tell me of a home ♪ Where no storm clouds rise ♪ Oh they tell me of a home far away ♪ ♪ Oh they tell me of a home ♪ Far beyond the skies ♪ Oh they tell me of an unclouded day ♪ - Obviously she was a great dresser, even when she wasn't in the business suit like in the photo that I used for the pose, she is wearing a dress.

But I just thought that was a nice touch because she did wear business suits a lot.

And I think it expresses that idea of business leader.

Then to think that she got basically run out of business because of her stances politically probably makes it all the more important to include that idea of a business leader.

(gentle music) - [Janis] In 1959, this vibrant newspaper that everybody thought so much of, they lost it because of their role with the Central High crisis.

The white advertisers pulled their advertisement, and they couldn't operate without that.

So they had to close their newspaper.

- [Benjamin] Like many people who live their life for the greater good, she was actually hated by some, ignored by others, and then died with not just nothing to her name, but also dead.

And so it's a real tragedy in a way.

And it's nice as an artist to be able to celebrate somebody like that and give them what they've been due all along.

Because you know, now she gets to have a work of art in the National Statuary Hall.

So her sculpture will be among the greatest icons in US history.

- Please be there.

Please be where I left you.

Please.

Yeah, all right, now we'll just kind of drop him right there.

Sit it, and now, forward.

Your side.

- [Assistant] Let me get his fingers.

- Okay.

When you first look at it, I mean I know you've seen the pictures, but I mean, it's like when you and the girls are saying, if the mouth maybe was just, you know, if there's something, you may not even know it was that when you look at it, but if there's anything that just hits you funny.

- But aren't you past that stage?

- I'm never past that stage.

- No?

- As long as it's in clay, he can always make a change.

- Yeah, so if you, I mean really, just be honest.

So if you see something that hits you funny, let me know.

- It's pretty great.

Mm.

It's pretty great, Kevin.

I didn't expect to be so moved by this.

I mean, it's...

I can't see a single thing I would change.

You even got his scar.

- Yeah.

- Do you know what that was from?

- [Kevin] It was a surgery for a cyst.

- Cyst.

He liked to say he cut it out himself, but he didn't.

(both laugh) I know that shirt too.

It's one of only 100 in the entire world that will be standing in that dome, you know?

- Yeah, and the only musician.

- And the only musician.

I mean, from here on out.

I mean, he was already part of history, but from here on out, it's like it expands exponentially who he is and what he did.

- Wow.

That is awesome.

That's awesome.

Man.

Man, that's awesome.

Oh man, she finally, I think now she can get the credit that she deserves.

She did so much for the civil rights movement, for Black people, for everybody.

Thank you, man.

I think you've done an awesome job.

It's great.

Sorry for getting emotional.

- No, thank you.

- I appreciate it, man.

- It means the most.

- Good job.

- Are you all excited?

(students chattering) Oh my gosh.

- [Teacher] Cynthia, I'll tell you when to stop.

- Hello.

- Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

This is amazing.

This is amazing.

- Thank you.

(students chattering) - You realize that she's the reason why I was able to walk through Little Rock Central High School and to graduate from there and just trying to walk in her legacy, and this is amazing.

Thank you.

(audience applauding) - I think of Mrs. Daisy Bates because I'm looking at this group and it looks like we've got children from all different backgrounds, and that's what she envisioned.

- Good afternoon, everyone.

As Speaker of the House, it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to Statuary Hall.

Our capital is filled with monuments to our history, and those inside teach us about where we were, where we are, and where we are going as people.

We've had Roger Williams at Providence, Washington at Mount Vernon, Lincoln at Gettysburg.

And starting today, we have Daisy Bates at Little Rock.

I'd like to extend a special welcome to those who are gathered at Second Baptist Church Little Rock, who are joining us online.

- Daisy said it best when she said it herself.

"Arkansas is the home of my birth, my growth, my identity as a woman in this world.

It has claimed me from birth, and I have claimed it for life."

Daisy has always claimed Arkansas, and today, we are very, very proud to claim her back and have her represent all of us.

- There are statues of great people throughout this Capitol.

Johnny Cash represents the first such statue of a professional musician.

- It's been said that Johnny Cash, though he came from a little town in Arkansas, knew how to talk to all of America.

And his catalog, in essence, tells the story of our country.

- The world saw the man in black, who through song and ballad, symbol and story, with a Martin guitar and over miles too many to count, preached the gospel to the poor, healed the brokenhearted, proclaimed freedom to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind.

- We thank God for Daisy Bates.

We thank God for her humble beginning and how you used her, you shaped and molded her life and her career.

We thank you, Lord, for the generation she's blessed in the past and those generations she's blessing even today.

- After all, the story of Arkansas isn't the story of the politicians who tried to stop them.

They have no statues in this hall.

The story of Arkansas is a story of men and women with grace and grit and determination, and a passion for justice, like Daisy Bates.

- Johnny Cash's story is an American story, and this statute will forever cement his incredible consequential place in the American journey.

- There's something beautifully symmetrical about Johnny Cash and civil rights icon Daisy Bates sharing representation of the great state of Arkansas.

Although approached from different paths, they were both healers and unifiers.

- It is a day to be proud to be an Arkansan.

- It feels surreal.

I was so nervous last night because I was like dreaming that I was here working on the sculpture in Statuary Hall and that I was sitting there welding and grinding metal and patina and everything.

And then I woke up and was like, "Oh, oh my gosh, today's the day."

- When America threw bricks through her large picture window with a note on it on the last one that said, "The next time, it will be a bomb," Daisy kept singing America.

When they burned a cross on her front yard at 1207 West 28th Street, Daisy kept singing America.

When they subjected she and L.C.

to abject poverty, Daisy kept singing America.

So it appears that the America that Daisy sang and the America that America sang were two different songs, until today.

♪ Amazing Grace ♪ How sweet the sound ♪ That saved a wretch ♪ Like me ♪ I once was lost ♪ But now I'm found ♪ Was blind ♪ But now I see - You know, after what, three years of doing this, it's very surreal that it's here.

I'm so grateful and appreciative and overwhelmed by everything that's happened.

- Johnny Cash walked the line.

It wasn't a straight line, much more like the Arkansas Ripper, jagged, but always moving forward.

- I stand here on behalf of the entire extended family of Johnny Cash, with particular acknowledgement of my dad's sister, Joanne, who's here today, the last surviving member of the original Cash family from Dyess, Arkansas.

(audience applauding) She has tragically lost her sight and asked if she could touch the statue.

There was so much love in him, and we did and do love him so dearly.

He said to us children many times in moments of conflict or anger, "Children, you can choose love or hate.

I choose love."

And so, may we all choose kindness, humility, choose to see the good in each other, choose to really see those who suffer and lift them up.

Choose rhythm and poetry.

We gotta head for higher ground.

Choose love.

♪ And when my flesh ♪ And heart shall fail ♪ And mortal life ♪ Shall cease ♪ Oh, I shall possess ♪ Within the veil ♪ A life of joy ♪ And peace - It says that Arkansas represents people from all sorts of backgrounds, but especially impoverished backgrounds because that's most of who we are.

But it does not dictate who we become.

I think that's what it says, thank God.

Something was inside both of them.

That they found a way to utilize, to make their lives, to create lives for themselves.

So their poverty and their impoverishment and their tragedies were horrible, but in a way, it helped propel them to who they became.

Arkansas is full of people like that.

♪ When we've been there