Martin Luther King Jr. and Billy Graham shared the conviction that the only solution to racial tension is the love of Christ. Watch this short documentary about how they worked together to change a divided nation.
[Music]
some people are predicting the
possibility of a race war
it’s not a problem in alabama alone it’s
a world problem
wherever you have two races living
is there an answer yes there is an
answer the answer is in the cross of
jesus christ
and there is a possibility of spiritual
brotherhood
in christ alone
[Music]
i have some very sad news for all of you
and i think uh sad news for all of our
fellow citizens
and people who love peace all over the
world
and that is that martin luther king was
shot and was killed tonight
graham i believe you’ve just been
informed of the tragic death of dr
martin luther king jr
yes and uh i was just informed about uh
five minutes ago and it comes as one of
the greatest shocks of my entire life
his friends called him mike and that’s
the way i knew him
billy and martin were good friends and a
lot of whites
damned to billy for that they said why
would you hook yourself up with a
communist he’s no good
[Music]
billy said no he’s my brother because
billy told him there was a time when i
didn’t take a stand for the race problem
and i preached to segregated audiences
but i got to know martin luther king and
i
felt what he felt and i took a stain
for an open crusade we demanded
integration almost from the beginning
of our meetings in the south and as a
result i think that this
later groundwork at that time now today
it’s almost impossible for the present
generation to understand
what things were in those days and what
it took to be that way and how many
threatening letters we’ve gotten
how many threats against my family as a
result of the stand that we took at that
time
i think both dr graham and my father
uh were trying to make the world a
better place
there is no excuse ever by hatred
there is no excuse ever for bigotry
and intolerance and prejudice we are to
love
as god loved us
we don’t need any woman we don’t need
any physical ammunition
we have a power all we need is to pick
up the ammunition of love
in our hands the weapons of justice now
then put on the best state of
righteousness and the whole
armor
[Applause]
[Music]
they were different obviously in their
style and their approach
but i think their heart and their goal
was the same
billy graham’s first public acts against
racial segregation
took place at his crusades in the south
during the early 1950s
at the time it was common practice for
ropes to separate the white from the
black
sections he walked into the
crusade and they had ropes up billy saw
them
blacks were supposed to sit back of that
and the whites would sit in front
i was appalled at it and decided that i
had to speak out on it had to do
something about it
i said no more of this and
i went to the head usher and asked him
if he would remove the
ropes and he said no he wouldn’t billy
got up from the platform and he walked
down
past the ushers and took the ropes down
himself
and i remember that the head usher
resigned
and there was quite a little flack about
that
that was a historic moment in history
with the church
and that opened up his friendship with
martin luther king and
other people and he really practiced
what he preached
in a 1956 article published in life
magazine
in which billy made a plea for an end to
intolerance he wrote
it is not sufficient to urge people to
love their neighbor
unless we lead them also to the capacity
to love
christ gives men this capacity we must
meet christ we must know him
as our lord and our savior believe on
the lord jesus christ and now shall be
saved
if we confess with our mouths the lord
jesus and believe in our hearts
we shall be safe his approach was more
of trying to get people into the
relationship with christ that that would
transform their mindset
in the way in which they live so they
will see people differently
um and thus treat people differently
everybody’s calling
is not the same and mr graham’s calling
is the proclamation of the gospel
in which um if he can reach men’s hearts
through the spirit of god that can
change a man’s whole life
completely
billy’s burden to end the blight of
racism through evangelism
continued to motivate his actions this
would be evident during the early days
of the 1957 new york crusade
in new york mr billy graham makes a
dramatic denunciation
there’s something wrong with human
nature
what is it in the nature of men that
causes men to lie
and hate and cheat steal
lust and have pride and bigotry and
intolerance
and racial intolerance what is it that
causes men
to have these terrible things down
inside of them
the problem of the world tonight is sin
billy had said i’m reaching 28 000
people every night at madison square
garden
the place is packed and jam but he said
i’m frustrated
i’m concerned i’m not reaching people of
color
and he said i don’t want this to be a
white man’s crusade
he said howard what must i do i said
there’s one thing you could do he said
what i said go where they are
he said i’ll go so one sunday afternoon
we went up there i made all the
arrangements we’re going to have at
sailor methodist church a large church
in harlem
and we ended up with 8 000 people there
that afternoon
then the next sunday we went to brooklyn
10 000 people turned up
billy preached they responded he said
will you come
they said billy since you came to
brooklyn we’re going to come to madison
square garden
and that was the beginning of the change
of the racial climate at madison square
garden
there was a browning a coloring of that
tremendous crowd
during the new york crusade another very
interesting thing happened
one night he invited uh martin luther
king to come
and pray and again he got some nasty
letters he said why do you want to have
that end preacher here
again billy said i don’t care i’m going
to do what’s right
so that night mark came he sat on the
platform right next to billy
so martin got up and prayed i have never
heard that man pray
a prayer like he prayed and he really
touched heaven so to speak tonight we’re
delighted to have from montgomery
alabama
dr martin luther king the minister of
the dexter avenue baptist church
[Music]
heavenly father out of whose mind
this great cosmic universe has been
created
we come recognizing our dependence on
thee
we stand amid the forces of truth and
yet we deliberately lie
we stand amid the compelling urgency of
the lord of love as exemplified in the
life of jesus christ
and yet we live our lives so often in
the dungeons of hatred
for all of these sins oh god forgive
[Music]
we thank thee this evening for the
marvelous things that have been done
in this city through the dynamic
preaching
of this great evangelist we ask
thee o god to continue blessing him
give him continued power and authority
and as we listen to him tonight granted
our hearts and spirit will be opened
to the divine inflow all of these things
we ask
in the name of him who taught us to pray
our father with unto heaven
i would be thy name
well i think with dr graham and dr king
on the same platform more than likely
send a very powerful
message especially to those in the south
and
that took courage a lot of courage on
their part as a matter of fact because
it could put their lives in danger as
well
[Music]
a lot of things that the black pastors
didn’t know was that
mr graham had helped martin luther king
and
many many areas with regard to his
imprisonment and paying of fines and
and uh that kind of thing and
encouragement along the way
it wasn’t something mr graham did for
his own prominence and to get
press interviews out of it but it was
something he did because
of his concern for justice and his
desire to help people
but he did it in his way from eisenhower
to kennedy
to johnson and then nixon billy worked
closely with all these presidents
encouraging them to take steps to end
racial segregation
when they tried to integrate central
high school in little rock arkansas that
was 1957
and president eisenhower called me on
the phone and he said billy did you see
the picture in the paper this morning of
the black man being kicked down on the
street in little rock and i said yes sir
i did
he said i’m thinking we’re going to have
to send some troops in there to hold
that down
and to stop that he said what do you
think about it i said
i don’t think you have any alternative i
said it can’t go on like it’s going now
and something dramatic has to take place
billy also offered to hold a crusade in
the troubled city but the local
committee thought it would be impossible
at that time
when the meetings did take place two
years later their impact would prove to
be far-reaching
almost 50 years ago my sunday school
teacher took me to little rock
to hear billy graham’s crusade
the schools were closed because of
little rock central high school
integration crisis
the white citizens council in little
rock tried to convince even to pressure
billy graham and all of his people
to preach to a segregated audience and
he told them that they insisted on that
he would cancel
the crusade and tell the whole world why
so here we were with neighborhood after
neighborhood after neighborhood in my
state on the verge of violence
and yet tens of thousands of black and
white christians there
together in a football stadium and when
he issued the call at the end of this
message
thousands came down holding hands arm
and arm
crying it was the beginning of the end
of the old south in my home state i will
never forget it
i had the privilege of being at the
white house
at a party the night the civil rights
bill was passed when hubert humphrey
came in about
or ten o’clock he was very tired
and he came straight over to me and he
said dylan
he said this bill will
never really be implemented
unless it comes from here
and he said this is the job of you and
the children
to help bring about love in the hearts
of people
i believe that the answer to our great
moral
problems our social problems lies
in the gospel of christ in the
transformation that he can bring
we need legislation yes but legislation
cannot improve the morals of america
alone
or our social problems alone must come
from
something deeper because our problem is
basically spiritual
we’ve passed all the civil rights laws
that you can fight you can’t think of
anything hardly they haven’t passed
but that hasn’t made everybody love each
other automatically
but the fruit of the spirit is love
by this shall all men know that you are
my disciples in that you have loved one
to another
that is a supernatural love given to you
by god
when you receive christ jesus said
follow me
come and change the world with me
billy’s concern for racial equality
extended to south africa during
apartheid
he repeatedly refused to visit unless
the government would allow a
non-segregated meeting
in 1973 billy graham prevailed
and held the first ever integrated
public meetings
20 years before apartheid ended
and he said to the thousands there
apartheid
is sin and the papers carried it
christianity is not a white man’s
religion and don’t let anybody ever tell
you that it’s quite a black
christ belongs to all people he belongs
to the whole world
his gospel is for everyone
i think i remember him as someone who
opened my eyes
to the simplicity of the gospel of jesus
christ
he’ll bring a peace and a joy to your
heart
that you’ve never known open your heart
and say
lord jesus come into my heart and he
will
i respected him for being genuine
and authentic and not pretentious i’ve
listened to a lot of preachers in my
life
sometimes i’m like i hear your words but
your spirit doesn’t seem to connect dr
graham’s spirit
uh connected with the word that he
delivered
therefore being justified by faith we
have peace with god
you want him in your heart and life
tonight i’m going to ask if you come
right now