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Christians are uniquely qualified to promote racial equality, said Stephen Carter, in his column following the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education. The Brown decision changed America forever, Carter wrote, when it declared that separate schools for blacks and white were unconstitutional. Over the next decade, busing programs integrated public schools, and American life began its slow road to racial equality, which was hastened by the Civil Rights Act in the following decade. Yet even before the landmark decision, America's leading evangelist began integrating his crusades.

According to Edward Gilbreath, it was Billy Graham who wrote, "Eleven o'clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America," in a 1950s Reader's Digest article on racism. They are well-known words, but less known is the man who said them. Martin Luther King Jr. borrowed the line from his friend Billy Graham.

Two years before Graham pledged to integrate his crusades, he told an audience in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1952, "There is no scriptural basis for segregation." His stance horrified many in the churches sponsoring the crusade, and when pressed, he softened his stance. "I came to Jackson to preach only the Bible and not to enter into local issues," he later said.

However, strong cultural feelings regarding the race issue combined with Graham's celebrity status did not allow him to waffle for long, and in 1953, Graham took a stand. At the committee of his Chattanooga, Tennessee, crusade, he voiced his strong opposition to the customary practice of segregated seating. Then, before one of the crusade meetings, onlookers were astonished when Graham personally removed the ropes separating black and white sections of the audience.

The newly famous evangelist began integrating his crusade team by adding Akbar Abdul-Haqq, a preacher from India. And following the 1954 Brown decision, Graham wanted to practice the social justice that he preached. He pledged never to conduct another segregated crusade and invited Howard Owen Jones, a pastor from Cleveland, to help attract blacks to an upcoming crusade in New York City.

In a profile of Jones, Edward Gilbreath said both Graham and Jones faced tough opposition from those who wanted them to give up their goal of equality. However, "There was never any hesitation on Billy's part," Jones said. "He had dug the trench, you might say, and he was going trough. He knew it was what God was calling him to."

Jones encouraged Graham to go to Harlem to attract blacks. Jones's work and his ideas helped to boost black turnout at Graham's New York City crusade to 20 percent of the 18,000 people who attended each evening. Graham asked Jones to stay on his team, and he accepted. After 35 years, Jones retired from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Despite some retreats to accommodate staunch Southern opposition to Graham's integrationist actions, the evangelist continued to make steps to reach out to the African-American community.

Graham has said, "Of all people, Christians should be the most active in reaching out to those of other races." In fact, Graham did not limit his outreach to the segregated black community. He has also been praised for his relations to the Jewish community, who are particularly sensitive to Christian evangelism.

"You know that I stand before you as an evangelical Christian who is committed to the beliefs of the New Testament. You do not expect me to be anything other than what I am," Graham said during his first address to a national Jewish group. Giving Graham the American Jewish Committee's first national interreligious award, Rabbi Marc Tanenaum credited most of the progress in Protestant-Jewish relations between 1950 and '75 (when the award was given) to Graham's leadership. Graham tread a fine line when he said his work was "to proclaim the gospel to Jew and Gentile." Yet he also said he never felt called to "single out Jews as Jews." It was a difficult needle to thread when, at the time, a national evangelism effort, called Key 73, raised concerns that Jews were being particularly targeted for evangelism. Some worried that groups were even using deceptive techniques to find Jewish converts.

In response, Graham wrote, "Just as Judaism frowns on proselyting that is coercive, or that seems to commit men against their will, so do I. Gimmicks, coercion, and intimidation have had no place in my evangelistic efforts, certainly not in historical biblical evangelism . . . The Gospel's method is persuasive invitation, not coercion."

Graham's sensitivity and outreach, without compromising his evangelistic efforts, won respect from the Jewish community. During his 30-minute speech to the American Jewish Committee, Graham was interrupted with applause five times.

Outreach and understanding have continued to be themes in Billy Graham's ministry. As recently as 1999, Graham met with three Iraqi religious leaders to discuss that country's dire situation due to United Nations-imposed economic sanctions. Following a UNICEF report indicating that thousands of children had died because of a lack of food and medicine, Graham told the delegation visiting him that the differences between Christianity and Islam are great, but everyone can agree "that God wants us to have compassion on those who are suffering, and to do what we can to help."

In a San Francisco crusade, Graham again found ways to reach out to people drastically different from himself. In a city where 4 percent of the people attend church, and which is known for its large homosexual community, Graham attracted attendees with Internet ads that read, "50,000 sinners in one place and you don't think you'll have fun?"

Dealing with sexuality, Graham showed the city he was no prude. While calling homosexuality a sin, Graham stressed that the greatest sin is idolatry, not homosexuality. He also admitted to suffering from sexual temptation, "so much so that I did not think I could hold on." However, Graham said, "the first time I ever had sex was the first night of my marriage." The audience applauded, and Graham said, "And I can tell you one thing. It was worth it."

Graham was also known for participating in the youth movements of the '40s, '60s, and '70s.

For Graham, what unifies Christians and even non-Christians is the gospel of Jesus. In a Christianity Today article discussing issues facing Christians in the third millennium, Graham wrote, "In spite of the difficulties, the twenty-first century could mark the greatest evangelistic advance in the history of the Christian church. In order for this to happen, however, the church (in all of its diversity) must embrace the challenges it faces and must mobilize every possible spiritual and physical resource to declare the gospel that has been committed to us."

One of those challenges is re-evangelizing Eastern Europe, freed from communism. It is "one of the greatest openings for the gospel in the history of the church," Graham said. But, he stressed, "Those from outside, however, must learn to temper their enthusiasm with prayer, strategic thinking, cultural sensitivity, and willingness to work as partners with those who are already there."

"The gospel is relevant to every individual in every culture," Graham wrote. That is why Christians can be united and culturally sensitive. In a Christianity Today editorial, Graham wrote, "We also must learn in a deeper way what it means to love within the body of Christ, even when there is not full agreement. Satan surely must rejoice when there is bickering and strife among fellow believers. Overcoming disunity may well be one of our greatest challenges in the years ahead."

A review of Graham's autobiography, Just as I Am, sums up his approach to the many issues that divide Christians. "Billy studiously disregards many doctrines that divide Christendom and majors on what unites—Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers."