Revivals built Graham’s popularity, but also involved controversies

Perhaps nothing was more identified with Billy Graham than the “crusades” that first put him in the public eye in 1947 and kept him there for the next six decades. These massive preaching and revival meetings would alight in a major city, for days or even weeks, and bring together thousands of people to hear Graham preach. They always concluded the same way: With Graham inviting attendees to come forward and commit themselves to live as faithful Christians.

Graham, who died Wednesday at age 99, conducted 417 crusades in all, from Aarhus, Denmark, to Zurich, Switzerland. Four were in Georgia, which, along with a separate large evangelistic gathering he organized with then-state Sen. Jimmy Carter in Americus, took on extra significance for his work and the country as a whole.

■ In the beginning: In the mid-1940s, Graham started out preaching at Youth for Christ rallies around Minneapolis. That expanded to his first citywide crusade in 1947 at the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, Mich. Lasting for nine days, it attracted some 6,000 people.

■ Getting his big media break: In 1949, Graham went to Los Angeles for a threeweek crusade held in a large tent downtown. Newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst took notice of the charismatic young evangelist, especially his anti-communism message. Hearst reportedly ordered his newspapers to “Puff Graham.” Translation: Give him lots of good coverage. Graham himself credited Hearst with boosting his profile in a way that led other major newspapers and magazines like Time and Newsweek to follow: “Suddenly, what a clergyman was saying was in the headlines everywhere, and so was the

box score of commitments to Christ each night,” Graham recalled.

■ By the numbers: From 1947 to 2005 (when he held his final and only crusade that year in New York City), Graham held crusades in 185 countries and territories on six continents. During those 58 years, he reached an estimated 215 million people in person or via satellite feeds. The longest-running one lasted for 16 weeks at Madison Square Garden in New York City and drew more than 2 million people. That 1957 event also marked the first time a Billy Graham Crusade was televised live, by ABC. The most heavily attended crusade took place over five days in 1973 in Seoul, South Korea: Over 3 million people took part, including a record 1.1 million on the final day.

■ When Graham came to Georgia: The Billy Graham Crusade first came to Augusta in 1948. Three crusades followed in Atlanta, in 1950, 1973 and 1994. The first Atlanta revival took place over six weeks at Ponce de Leon Ballpark, which was then home to the minorleague Atlanta Crackers. Opening day, on Oct. 29, 1950, drew some 25,000 people, at the time the largest crowd to ever hear Graham preach.

■ Why those Georgia stops mattered so much: Graham also credited that 1950 Atlanta stop with helping his ministry avoid the financial scandals that later felled other well-known evangelists. In a 1992 interview with Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Gayle White, Graham recalled seeing a newspaper picture of himself grinning beside another photo of ushers handling bags of money from those Atlanta services. “I said, ‘That’ll never happen again,’ “he remembered. “From that time,” White wrote, “he says he never accepted another ‘love offering,’ a common practice for evangelists. He collected a board of businessmen-advisers and put himself and his staff on salary.”

In 1973, the Billy Graham Crusade returned to the city for six nights at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Graham’s refusal to speak up in support of the 1972 Supreme Court decision banning capital punishment led to picketing outside and some civil rights leaders urging African-Americans to skip the event. Yet the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. led a prayer one night at the crusade.

Race had already been a major issue when Graham came to Georgia a few years earlier. His 1966 attempt to organize an evangelistic outreach program in Americus was stymied when members of the community objected to his insistence that the meetings be integrated. With local churches refusing even to host an integrated film screening, Jimmy Carter stepped up. The state senator from nearby Plains and himself a self-professed evangelical, Carter organized the event in the basement of an abandoned school building.

AJC FILE Billy Graham held four revivals in Georgia from 1950-1994. The last was staged at the Georgia Dome. Graham died Wednesday at the age of 99.