Governor Hutchinson announced today that $510,00 had been raised toward a $1 million goal for replacing Arkansas’s statues in the National Statuary Hall in Washington.
The legislative acted to replace existing statues of Uriah Rose, a lawyer, and James Clarke, a former governor and senator, with statues of Johnny Cash and Daisy Bates.
About $1 million is expected to be needed to pay sculptors and to have the statues shipped and installed.
The governor said the money raised so far came from Walmart, the city of Little Rock, Sony Music, Simmons Bank, Steuart and Kelly Walton, the Tyson Family Foundation, Crown Merchandise, the Murphy USA Foundation and the Murphy Family Foundation.
Now begins a public fund-raising campaign. Hutchinson said he hoped that could be completed by the time he leaves office at the end of 2022. A website is available to make contributions.
Shane Broadway, chair of the committee working on the project, said plans were to out the Cash statue in the Capitol visitor center and the Bates statue will be in the statuary hall across from that of civil rights figure Rosa Parks and next to that of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, whose statue is a representative of Mississippi. Broadway said Bates’ representatives thought it would be a good place as a showing to Davis’ legacy.
Hutchinson contributed a check at the end of the program. No state money has been devoted to the project.