Graham’s statue will be unveiled next Thursday during an 11 a.m. ceremony that will be attended by musician Michael W. Smith, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and other congressional representatives.
The bronze sculpture, designed by an artist from Graham’s birthplace of Charlotte, North Carolina, will stand seven feet tall on a pedestal and depict him gesturing toward an open Bible in his hand as a symbol of his life’s work.
The pedestal will be engraved with John 3:16 and John 14:6, and Graham will be proclaimed as a “Preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
After the North Carolina General Assembly unanimously voted him the state’s “Favorite Son” in 2013, then-Gov. Pat McCrory signed House Bill 540 in 2015, which set in motion the Graham statue.
The bill read, “There have been many great North Carolinians, but few have impacted the world more than Billy Graham.”
Sen. Ted Budd, who played a role in the bipartisan effort to place the statue in the Capitol, said, “The legacy of Rev. Billy Graham is based on his simple message of forgiveness based on John 3:16. His lifelong commitment to preaching the Gospel, his fight for civil rights, his opposition to communism, and his spiritual guidance provided hope to hundreds of millions.”