U.S. Capitol

The U.S. Capitol has installed an 11-foot bronze statue of teenage civil‑rights leader Barbara Rose Johns—sculpted by Maryland artist Steven Weitzman and showing her at a podium raising a book—to replace Robert E. Lee’s statue in Virginia’s place in the National Statuary Hall Collection. Unveiled Dec. 16 at 3 p.m. ET in Emancipation Hall after Virginia’s December 2020 selection and final federal approvals in July, the work bears inscriptions including Johns’ question “Are we going to just accept these conditions, or are we going to do something about it?” and “And a little child shall lead them,” and will be placed in the Capitol Crypt following a ceremony that featured Speaker Mike Johnson, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, members of Johns’ family, choir performances and readings from her journal.