LITTLE ROCK -- Money to pay for statues of county music icon Johnny Cash and civil-rights leader Daisy Gatson Bates to represent Arkansas in the U.S. Capitol have surpassed $780,000, officials said Thursday.
With Act 1068 of 2019, state lawmakers ordered the replacement of the two century-old statues representing the Natural State in the U.S. Capitol with likenesses of Cash and Bates.
The measure came with an unfunded appropriation of $750,000, though Gov. Asa Hutchinson set a $1 million fundraising goal in mounting a public push for donations in November.
The Foundation for Arkansas Heritage and History, a nonprofit group supporting the state Division of Arkansas Heritage, is acting as a repository for private charitable gifts to pay for designing and creating the statues and will turn those donations over to the secretary of state's office.
At its annual funding meeting Wednesday, the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council approved a $250,000 grant that the secretary of state's office had requested for the project, Stacy Hurst, secretary of the state Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, said.
The secretary of state's office will receive the grant July 1, said Kurt Naumann, director of administration and government relations for Secretary of State John Thurston.
As of Thursday, the Foundation for Arkansas Heritage and History has raised $536,372 in private contributions for the statues, Hurst said. Of those contributions, $476,372 has been received, and $60,000 has been pledged.
Major contributors include Walmart, Little Rock, Sony Music Entertainment, Walton Family Foundation, Crown Merchandise, Murphy Foundation, Murphy USA Charitable Foundation, David and Susie Sloane, Simmons Bank and Tyson Family Foundation, Hurst said.