Editing Billy Graham (section)

====Civil rights movement====
Graham's early crusades were [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregated]], but he began adjusting his approach in the 1950s.{{sfn|Schier|2013|pages=404–5}} During a 1953 rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Graham tore down the ropes that organizers had erected to segregate the audience into racial sections. In his memoirs, he recounted that he told two ushers to leave the barriers down "or you can go on and have the revival without me."{{sfn|Miller|2009|pp=13–38}} During a sermon held at [[Vanderbilt University]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]] on August 23, 1954, he warned a white audience, "Three-fifths of the world is not white. They are rising all over the world. We have been proud and thought we were better than any other race, any other people. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you that we are going to stumble into hell because of our pride."<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 25, 1954 |title=Text Of Second Graham Sermon, Delivered To Capacity Crowd In VU Gym |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner-text-of-second-graham-s/138495295/ |access-date=January 10, 2024 |work=[[Nashville Banner]] |page=6 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref>{{sfn|Miller|2009|pp=13–38}}

In 1957, Graham's stance towards integration became more publicly shown when he allowed black ministers Thomas Kilgore and [[Gardner C. Taylor]] to serve as members of his New York Crusade's executive committee.<ref name=grahammlik/> He also invited [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], whom he first met during the [[Montgomery bus boycott]] in 1955,<ref name=grahammlik /> to join him in the pulpit at his 16-week revival in New York City, where 2.3&nbsp;million gathered at [[Madison Square Garden]], [[Yankee Stadium (1923)|Yankee Stadium]], and [[Times Square]] to hear them.<ref name="cincinnati post" /> Graham recalled in his autobiography that during this time, he and King developed a close friendship and that he was eventually one of the few people who referred to King as "Mike", a nickname which King asked only his closest friends to call him.<ref>[http://www.billygraham.org/articlepage.asp?articleid=8423 Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Gun Fire 45 Years Ago Kills Man that Billy Graham Considered a Friend] Billy Graham.com, April 4, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2013</ref> Following King's assassination in 1968, Graham mourned that the US had lost "a social leader and a prophet".<ref name=grahammlik /> In private, Graham advised King and other members of the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC).{{sfn|Aikman|2010|pp=195–203}}

Despite their friendship, tensions between Graham and King emerged in 1958, when the sponsoring committee of a crusade that took place in [[San Antonio]], Texas, on July 25 arranged for Graham to be introduced by that state's segregationist governor, [[Price Daniel]].<ref name=grahammlik /> On July 23, King sent a letter to Graham and informed him that allowing Daniel to speak at a crusade which occurred the night before the state's Democratic Primary "can well be interpreted as your endorsement of racial segregation and discrimination."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol4/23-July-1958_ToGraham.pdf |title=To Billy Graham |access-date=December 9, 2013 |archive-date=October 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031211839/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol4/23-July-1958_ToGraham.pdf }}</ref> Graham's advisor, Grady Wilson, replied to King that "even though we do not see eye to eye with him on every issue, we still love him in Christ."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol4/28-July-1958_FromWilson.pdf |title=From Grady Wilson |access-date=December 9, 2013 |archive-date=October 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031212047/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol4/28-July-1958_FromWilson.pdf }}</ref> Though Graham's appearance with Daniel dashed King's hopes of holding joint crusades with Graham in the Deep South,{{sfn|Aikman|2010|pp=195–203}} the two remained friends; the next year King told a Canadian television audience that Graham had taken a "very strong stance against segregation."{{sfn|Aikman|2010|pp=195–203}} Graham and King would also come to differ on the [[Vietnam War]].<ref name=grahammlik /> After King's "[[Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence|Beyond Vietnam]]" speech denouncing US intervention in Vietnam, Graham castigated him and others for their criticism of US foreign policy.<ref name=grahammlik />

By the middle of 1960, King and Graham traveled together to the Tenth Baptist World Congress of the [[Baptist World Alliance]].<ref name=grahammlik /> In 1963, Graham posted bail for King to be released from jail during the [[Birmingham campaign|Birmingham (Alabama) campaign]], according to Michael Long,{{sfn|Long|2008|pp=150–151}} and the King Center acknowledged that Graham had bailed King out of jail during the [[Albany Movement]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/theme/2179|title=The Archive – The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change|website=thekingcenter.org|access-date=April 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315074536/http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/theme/2179|archive-date=March 15, 2015}}</ref> although historian Steven Miller told CNN he could not find any proof of the incident.<ref>{{cite news |publisher=CNN |url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/us/billy-graham-mlk-civil-rights/index.html |title=Where Billy Graham 'missed the mark' |date=February 22, 2018 |access-date=March 20, 2018 |first=John |last=Blake}}</ref> Graham held integrated crusades in Birmingham on Easter of 1964, in the aftermath of the [[16th Street Baptist Church bombing|bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church]], and toured Alabama again in the wake of the violence that accompanied the first [[Selma to Montgomery marches|Selma to Montgomery march]] in 1965.<ref name=grahammlik />

Following Graham's death, former SCLC official and future Atlanta politician [[Andrew Young]] (who spoke alongside [[Coretta Scott King]] at Graham's 1994 crusade in Atlanta),<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gM6KphyINsC&q=andrew+young+wife+1994+billy+graham&pg=PA64|title=Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America|page=64|first1=Michael O.|last1=Emerson|first2=Christian|last2=Smith|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-514707-0|date=July 20, 2000|access-date=June 10, 2020}}</ref> acknowledged his friendship with Graham and stated that Graham did in fact travel with King to the 1965 European Baptist Convention.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.11alive.com/video/news/billy-graham-passes-away-andrew-young-remembers-the-reverend/85-8015124|title=Billy Graham passes away: Andrew Young remembers the reverend|access-date=April 5, 2018}}</ref> Young also claimed that Graham had often invited King to his crusades in the Northern states.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/rev-billy-graham-remembered-as-a-friend-to-the-civil-rights-movement|title=Civil rights leader reflects on Billy Graham's impact on Atlanta, movement|last=FOX|date=February 22, 2018|access-date=April 5, 2018}}</ref> Former [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC) leader and future United States Congressman [[John Lewis]] also credited Graham as a major inspiration for his activism.<ref name=lewisspeaks>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PqRiItBO-E Billy Graham passes away: Congressman John Lewis remembers the reverend] [[WXIA-TV|11 Alive]], February 21, 2018, Accessed October 6, 2020</ref> Lewis described Graham as a "saint" and someone who "taught us how to live and who taught us how to die".<ref name=lewisspeaks />

Graham's faith prompted his maturing view of race and segregation. He told a member of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] that integration was necessary, primarily for religious reasons. "There is no scriptural basis for segregation," Graham argued. "The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross."<ref name="baptisthistory">{{cite news |title=Billy Graham: an appreciation |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-87912863.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110829105151/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-87912863.html |archive-date=August 29, 2011 |publisher=Baptist History and Heritage |date=June 22, 2006 |access-date=August 18, 2007}}</ref>
[[File:Cleared_version_Emperor_Haile_Selassie_I_with_The_Reverend_Billy_Graham.png|thumb|Graham at the World Congress of Evangelism at [[West Berlin]], 1966 with [[Haile Selassie|Emperor Haile Selassie I]] of Ethiopia]]