| birth name | William Franklin Graham, Jr. |
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| birth date | November 07, 1918 |
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| birth place | |
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| residence | |
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| occupation | Evangelist |
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| religion | Evangelical Christian |
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| spouse | (her death) |
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| children | Franklin, Nelson, Virginia, Anne Ruth |
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| education | Diploma in Biblical Studies, Florida Bible Institute (Trinity Bible College), 1940 B.A. in Anthropology, Wheaton College, 1943 |
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| ordained | Southern Baptist |
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| offices held | President, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association |
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| title | Doctor (Honorary) |
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| signature | Billy Graham Signature.svg |
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| website |
}} |
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William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. (born November 7, 1918) is an American evangelical Christian evangelist, who rose to celebrity status as his sermons were broadcast on radio and television. Graham has been spiritual adviser to several United States Presidents and has met with 12, dating back to Harry S. Truman. He has repeatedly been on Gallup's most admired man and woman poll, and is listed at number seven for the 20th century (taken in 1999). He was ordained by the Southern Baptist Convention.
Graham has preached the Gospel in person to more people than any other person in history. According to his staff, more than 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, many to the altar call song "Just As I Am". As of 2008, Graham's lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion.
He was born November 7, 1918 to William Franklin Graham, Sr. (1888–1962) and Morrow Coffey (1892–1981), on a dairy farm near
Charlotte, North Carolina. Graham was raised in the
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church by his parents. In 1933, when
Prohibition in the United States ended, Graham's father forced Graham and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they vomited, which created an aversion, in both of them, to alcohol and drugs. According to the Billy Graham Center, Graham was converted in 1934 at age 16 during a series of revival meetings in Charlotte which were led by evangelist
Mordecai Ham. However, he was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was "too worldly". He was persuaded to go see Ham at the urging of one of the employees, Albert McMakin, on the Graham farm.
After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended
Bob Jones College, which was located in
Cleveland, Tennessee. After one semester, he found it too legalistic in both coursework and rules. At this time, he was influenced and inspired by Pastor Charley Young from Eastport Bible Church. He was almost expelled, but
Bob Jones, Sr. warned him not to throw his life away: "At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks.... You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily." In 1937, Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute (now
Trinity College of Florida) on the site of today's
Florida College in
Temple Terrace, Florida. In his autobiography he writes that he "received [his] calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club," which is immediately in front of today's Sutton Hall at Florida College in
Temple Terrace. Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park is today located on the Hillsborough River directly east of the 18th green and across from where Graham often paddled a canoe to a small island in the river, where he would preach to the birds, alligators, and cypress stumps. Graham eventually graduated from
Wheaton College in
Wheaton, Illinois with a degree in
anthropology, in 1943. It was during his time at Wheaton that Graham decided to accept the
Bible as the
infallible word of God.
Henrietta Mears of the
First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood (Hollywood, California) was instrumental in helping Graham wrestle with the issue, which was settled at Forest Home Christian camp (now called Forest Home Ministries) southeast of the
Big Bear area in
Southern California. A memorial there marks the site of Graham's decision.
On August 13, 1943, Graham married Wheaton classmate
Ruth Bell (1920–2007), whose parents were
Presbyterian missionaries in
China, where her father,
L. Nelson Bell, was a general surgeon. He met Ruth at Wheaton: "I saw her walking down the road towards me and I couldn't help but stare at her as she walked. She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry." Ruth thought that he "wanted to please God more than any man I'd ever met." They married two months after graduation and later lived in a
log cabin designed by Ruth in the
Blue Ridge Mountains in
Montreat, North Carolina. Ruth died on June 14, 2007, at the age of 87.
They had five children together: Virginia Leftwich (Gigi) Graham Tchividjian (born 1945); Anne Graham Lotz (born 1948; runs AnGeL ministries); Ruth Graham (born 1950; founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends); Franklin Graham (born 1952; administers an international relief organization called Samaritan's Purse and will be his father's successor at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association); and Nelson Edman Graham (born 1958; a pastor who runs East Gates International, which distributes Christian literature in China). Graham has 19 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. Grandson Tullian Tchividjian is senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
As a guard against even the appearance of wrongdoing Graham had a policy that he would never be alone with a woman, other than his wife Ruth. This has come to be known as the Billy Graham Rule.
Graham transferred in January 1937 from
Bob Jones College to
Florida Bible Institute, and then finally to Wheaton College in 1939. Graham attended Wheaton College from 1939 to 1943, when he graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts in
anthropology. While attending college, he became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements.
Graham served briefly as pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, not far from Wheaton, in 1943-44. While there, his friend Torrey Johnson, pastor of the Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, told Graham that his radio program "Songs in the Night" was about to be canceled for lack of funding. Consulting with the members of his church in Western Springs, Graham decided to take over Johnson's program with financial support from his parishioners. Launching the new radio program on January 2, 1944, still called ''Songs in the Night'', Graham recruited the baritone George Beverly Shea as his director of radio ministry. While the radio ministry continued for many years, Graham decided to move on in early 1945, and in 1947, at age 30, he became the youngest person to serve as a sitting college president during his tenure at Northwestern Bible College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Graham served as the president of Northwestern Bible College from 1948 to 1952.
Initially, Graham intended to become a chaplain in the armed forces, but shortly after applying for a commission contracted mumps. After a period of recuperation in Florida, Graham was hired as the first full time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ International (YFCI) which was co-founded by Torrey Johnson and Canadian evangelist Charles Templeton and Graham traveled throughout both the United States and Europe as an YFCI evangelist. Unlike many evangelists then and now, Graham had little formal theological training; when his friend Chuck Templeton urged him to join him in applying to Princeton Theological Seminary for an advanced theological degree, Graham declined to apply with Princeton or any other university within the United States as he was already serving as the president of Northwestern Bible College.
Graham scheduled a series of
revival meetings in
Los Angeles in 1949, for which he erected
circus tents in a parking lot. The Los Angeles revival is considered to be the time when Graham became a national religious figure. Graham's rise to national prominence is partly because of the assistance he received from news mogul
William Randolph Hearst, whose interest in Graham was that he respected Graham for being his own person and following what he believed, though the two never met. Most observers believe that Hearst appreciated Graham's patriotism and appeals to youth and thought that Graham would be helpful in promoting Hearst's conservative anti-communist views. Hearst sent a
telegram to his newspaper editors reading "Puff Graham" during Billy Graham's late 1949 Los Angeles crusade.
The increased media exposure from Hearst's newspaper chain and national magazines caused the crusade event to run for eight weeks—five weeks longer than planned. Henry Luce put him on the cover of ''TIME'' in 1954. At the Los Angeles revival, a fellow evangelist accused Graham of setting religion back 100 years. Graham replied, "I did indeed want to set religion back, not just 100 years but 1,900 years, to the Book of Acts, when 1st century followers of Christ were accused of turning the Roman Empire upside down."
Billy Graham has conducted many
evangelistic crusades since 1948. He began this form of ministry in 1947 and continued until recently. He would rent a large venue, such as a stadium, park, or street. He arranged a group of up to 5,000 people to sing in a choir and then preached the
gospel and invited people to come forward (a practice begun by
Dwight L. Moody). These people, called inquirers, were then given the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a counselor who clarified any questions the inquirer may have had and would pray with that person. The inquirers were often given resources, such as a copy of the
Gospel of John or a
Bible study booklet. In
Moscow in 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 people in his audience came forward upon his request.
Graham was offered a five-year, $5 million contract from NBC to appear on television opposite Arthur Godfrey, but he turned it down in favor of continuing his touring revivals because of his prearranged commitments. Graham had missions in London, which lasted 12 weeks, and a New York City mission in Madison Square Garden, in 1957, which ran nightly for 16 weeks. In 1959, he led his first crusade, which was in London.
In 1950, Graham founded the
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with its headquarters in
Minneapolis. The association later relocated to
Charlotte, North Carolina. BGEA Ministries have included:
''Hour of Decision'', a weekly radio program broadcast around the world for more than 50 years
Mission television specials that have been regularly broadcast in prime time in almost every market in the US and Canada
A syndicated newspaper column, ''My Answer'', carried by newspapers across the United States and distributed by Tribune Media Services
''Decision'' magazine, the official publication of the Association
''Christianity Today'' was started in 1956 with Carl F. H. Henry as its first editor
Passageway.org, the website for a children's program created by BGEA
World Wide Pictures, which has produced and distributed more than 130 films
Like many white public figures, Graham had shown little concern for
segregation until the civil rights movement began to take off in the early 1950s, and many of his early crusades were segregated. In response to the civil rights movement, Graham was inconsistent, refusing to speak to some segregated auditoriums, while speaking to others. In 1953 he dramatically tore down the ropes that organizers had erected to separate the audience; he recounted in his memoirs that he told two ushers to leave the barriers down "or you can go on and have the revival without me.". But, Graham would later retreat on the issue in
Dallas, Texas and Asheville, North Carolina. Graham remained mercurial in this early period, ranging from telling audiences that the Bible said nothing on the matter of segregation, to warning a white audience, "we have been proud and thought we were better than any other race, any other people. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to stumble into hell because of our pride." While Graham would integrate all his revivals after the 1954
Brown v. Board of Education decision, Graham's mercurial treatment of segregation in this early phase of his career complicated his legacy in years to come, as seen in the differing assessments of historians.
From the mid-1950s on, Graham would grow increasingly opposed to segregation and racism, all while keeping his eye on public opinion, and the shifting winds of American culture. For instance, Graham invited Martin Luther King, Jr. to join him in the pulpit at his 16-week revival in New York City in 1957, where 2.3 million gathered to see King at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and Times Square. Yet, Graham feared angering American whites, and so he backed off from this position, never appearing with King publicly again, despite posting King's bail to him out of jail during the 1960s civil rights movement. This balancing act clearly shows Graham's ambivalent relationship to the civil rights movement.
While some would fault Billy Graham for his inconsistency in regards to segregation, it is clear that Graham's primary interest was evangelism, and his shifting stance on integration grew from his efforts to preach the gospel first. In fact, Graham's faith prompted his maturing view of race and segregation; Graham told one member of the KKK 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." This well encapsulates Graham's moderate view of race, and his central attention to preaching the Christian message.
Graham's visibility and popularity extended into the secular world. He created his own pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair. He appeared as a guest on a 1969 Woody Allen television special, where he joined the comedian in a witty exchange on theological matters.
During the Cold War, Graham became the first evangelist of note to speak behind the Iron Curtain, addressing large crowds in countries throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, calling for peace. During the Apartheid era, Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government allowed attending audiences to sit desegregated. His first crusade there was in 1973, during which he openly denounced apartheid.
In 1984, he led a series of summer meetings in the United Kingdom, called Mission England, using outdoor football grounds as venues.
Graham was interested in fostering evangelism around the world. In 1983, 1986 and 2000 he sponsored, organized and paid for massive training conferences for Christian evangelists from around the world; with the largest representations of nations ever held until that time. Over 157 nations were gathered in 2000 at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
At one revival in Seoul, South Korea, Graham attracted more than one million people to a single service. He appeared in China in 1988—for Ruth, this was a homecoming, since she had been born in China to missionary parents. He appeared in North Korea in 1992.
On September 22, 1991 Graham held the largest event he ever led in North America on The Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park. City officials estimated over 250,000 in attendance. In 1998, Graham spoke at TED (conference) to a crowd of scientists and philosophers.
On September 14, 2001, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Graham led a prayer and remembrance service at Washington National Cathedral, which was attended by President George W. Bush and past and present leaders. He also spoke at the memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. On June 24–26, 2005, Billy Graham began what he has said would be his last North American crusade, three days at the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City. But on the weekend of March 11–12, 2006, Billy Graham held the "Festival of Hope" with his son, Franklin Graham. The festival was held in New Orleans, which was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
Graham said that his planned retirement was because of his failing health. He has suffered from Parkinson's disease for about 15 years, has had hydrocephalus, pneumonia, broken hips, and prostate cancer. In August 2005, a frail Graham appeared at the groundbreaking for his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then 86, Reverend Graham used a walker to assist with mobility during the ceremony. On July 9, 2006, Graham spoke at the Metro Maryland Franklin Graham Festival, held in Baltimore, Maryland, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
There had been controversy over where the burial place would be until a press release on June 13, 2007, saying that he and his wife would be buried alongside each other at the Billy Graham Library in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Graham's younger son Ned had argued with older son Franklin about whether burial at a library would be appropriate. Ruth Graham had said that she wanted to be buried not in Charlotte but in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, where she had lived for many years; Ned supported his mother's choice. Novelist Patricia Cornwell, a family friend, also opposed burial at the library, calling it a tourist attraction. Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site. At the time of Ruth Graham's death, it was announced that they would be buried at the library site.
On August 18, 2007, Graham, 88, was in fair condition in Mission Health & Hospitals of Asheville after undergoing treatment for intestinal bleeding, but his condition was not life-threatening.
In April, 2010, Graham, at 91 and with substantial vision and hearing loss, made a rare public appearance at the re-dedication of the renovated Billy Graham Library. Graham's grandson, Will Graham told reporters that his grandfather has "got a lot more energy and he's talking about preaching one more time," stating that it would probably be a televised event rather than a stadium crusade.
Billy Graham has preached Christianity to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings, including BMS World Mission and Global Mission. Graham has also reached hundreds of millions more through television, video, film, and webcasts.
On May 11, 2011, Billy Graham was admitted to Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, for treatment of pneumonia. He was released May 15, 2011, and returned home. Doctors said his response to treatment was excellent. According to his daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, in an interview aired on NPR on October 10, 2011, Billy Graham was recently placed on oxygen therapy. According to his son, Graham is working on a new book about salvation.
Politically, Graham is a registered member of the
Democratic Party. He leaned
Republican during the presidency of
Richard Nixon. He did not completely ally himself with the
religious right, saying that Jesus did not have a political party. He did not openly endorse political candidates, but he gave his support to some over the years.
He refused to join Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in 1979, saying: "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future."
According to a 2006 ''Newsweek'' interview, "For Graham, politics is a secondary to the Gospel.... When ''Newsweek'' asked Graham whether ministers—whether they think of themselves as evangelists, pastors or a bit of both—should spend time engaged with politics, he replied: 'You know, I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord. A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord, I'm sure, but I think you have some—like communism, or segregation, on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out.'".
Graham has had a personal audience with many sitting
US presidents from
Harry S. Truman to
Barack Obama. He visited in the
Oval Office with Truman in 1950, urging him to counter
communism in
North Korea. However, Graham and his accompanying friends were not aware of Washington protocol; they appeased the press corps waiting outside with details of the visit, with the three pastors even acquiescing to the calls of the press to kneel on the
White House lawn, as if praying. Truman allegedly commented about Graham in Merle Miller's oral biography ''Plain Speaking'':
But now we've got just this one evangelist, this Billy Graham, and he's gone off the beam. He's...well, I hadn’t ought to say this, but he’s one of those counterfeits I was telling you about. He claims he's a friend of all the Presidents, but he was never a friend of mine when I was President. I just don’t go for people like that. All he's interested in is getting his name in the paper.
Truman did not speak to Graham for years after their meeting. Graham has often told the story, usually as a warning that he would not reveal his conversations with world leaders.
Graham became a regular in the Oval Office during the tenure of Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom he urged to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine, and it was at that time, on a Washington golf course, that he met and became close friends with Vice President Richard Nixon. Graham was invited by Eisenhower to visit with him when the former president was on his deathbed. Graham also counseled Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and the Bush family.
The single notable exception among modern presidents is John F. Kennedy, with whom Graham played golf, but Kennedy was Roman Catholic; Graham enjoyed a friendship with Nixon and prominently supported him over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Nixon wrote to Graham after that election: "I have often told friends that when you went into the ministry, politics lost one of its potentially greatest practitioners." Graham spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House, and he stayed for the first night of Nixon's.
After Nixon's victorious 1968 presidential campaign, Graham was an adviser, visiting the White House and leading some of the private church services that the President organized there. Nixon offered Graham the ambassadorship to Israel in a meeting they had with Golda Meir, but Graham turned down Nixon's offer. Nixon appeared at one of Graham's revivals in East Tennessee in 1970; the event drew one of the largest crowds to ever gather in Tennessee. Nixon became the first President to give a speech from an evangelist's platform. However, their friendship became strained when Graham rebuked Nixon for his post-Watergate behavior and the profanity heard on the Watergate tapes; they eventually reconciled after Nixon's resignation. Graham announced at that time, "I'm out of politics."
After a special law was passed on his behalf, Graham was allowed to conduct the first religious service on the steps of the Capitol building in 1952. When Graham was hospitalized briefly in 1976, three Presidents called in one day to wish him well: former President Nixon, current President Ford and President-elect Carter.
He was one of Reagan's personal guests at his inauguration and gave the benediction at George H. W. Bush's inauguration. He stayed at the White House the night before George H. W. Bush (who called Graham "America's pastor") launched the Persian Gulf War. Two days before the 2000 presidential election, Graham spoke at a prayer breakfast in Florida with George W. Bush in attendance. At a New York revival in 2005, Bill Clinton recalled how he had attended Graham's revival as a boy in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1959.
Graham has officiated at one presidential burial and one presidential funeral. He presided over the graveside services of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973 and took part in eulogizing the former president. Graham officiated at the funeral service of former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993 and the funeral of Richard Nixon in 1994. He was unable to officiate at the state funeral of Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, because of recent double hip replacement surgery, which former President George H. W. Bush acknowledged during his eulogy. Graham had been Reagan's first choice. Because of Graham's hospitalization, the Reverend John Danforth, a Missouri Republican Senator during Reagan's tenure, and an ordained Episcopal priest, officiated at the funeral. Failing health prevented Graham from officiating at the state funeral of Gerald R. Ford on January 2, 2007, as well as the funeral of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in July 2007.
On April 25, 2010, President Barack Obama visited Rev. Graham at his home in Montreat, North Carolina where they “had a private prayer.”
As with other presidents in the past, Graham met with former President George W. Bush during December 2010, for a tour of his library.
Graham has been outspoken against
communism and supportive of US
Cold War policy, including the
Vietnam War. However, in a 1999 speech, Graham discussed his relationship with the late
North Korean dictator
Kim Il-sung, praising him as a "different kind of communist" and "one of the great fighters for freedom in his country against the
Japanese." Graham went on to note that although he had never met Kim's son and former North Korean
dictator Kim Jong-il, he had "exchanged gifts with him." Graham has given a globe surmounted with doves to the North Korean Friendship Museum.
During a March 12, 1991, CBS broadcast of Billy Graham's Long Island, New York crusade, Graham said in reference to the Persian Gulf War, "As our President, President Bush, has said, it is not the people of Iraq we are at war with. It is some of the people in that regime. Pray for peace in the Middle East, a just peace." Graham had earlier said that "there come times when we have to fight for peace." He went on to say that out of the war in the Gulf may "come a new peace and, as suggested by the President, a new world order."
In 2002, declassified "
Richard Nixon tapes" confirmed remarks made by Graham to
President Nixon three decades earlier. Captured on the tapes, Graham agreed with Nixon that
Jews control the
American media, calling it a "stranglehold" during a 1972 conversation with Nixon. His remarks were characterized as
anti-Semitic by
Abraham Foxman of the
Anti-Defamation League and
evangelical author
Richard Land. When the tapes became public, Graham apologized and stated ""Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon ... some 30 years ago (...). They do not reflect my views and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks. According to ''
Newsweek'' magazine, "[T]he shock of the revelation was magnified because of Graham's longtime support of
Israel and his refusal to join in calls for conversion of the Jews."
In 2009, more tapes were released, in which Graham is heard in conversation with Nixon referring to Jews and "the synagogue of Satan." A spokesman for Graham said that Graham has never been an anti-Semite and that the comparison (in accord with the context of the quotation in the Book of Revelation) was directed specifically at those claiming to be Jews, but not holding to traditional Jewish values.
After Crusade in New York (1957) fundamentalists criticized Graham for his
ecumenism (he was even called "Antichrist").
Graham has frequently been honored by surveys, including "Greatest Living American" and has consistently ranked among the most admired persons in the United States and the world. Between 1950 and 1990, he appeared most frequently on
Gallup's list of most admired people. The
United States Postal Service has said that Graham is one of the few Americans, along with the current President, who can be delivered mail that simply reads his name and the country: "Billy Graham, America."
In 1967, he was the first Protestant to receive an honorary degree from Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic school.
In 1971, Graham received an award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. After the Nixon tapes were released, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League called for Graham to return the award. He was honored by the American Jewish Committee with its National Interreligious Award for his efforts on behalf of Jewish-Christian relations; the committee called him one of the century's greatest Christian friends of Jews. In the same year, Graham's hometown of Charlotte held "Billy Graham Day" at which President Nixon made an appearance.
In 1972 he received the International Franciscan Award for "his contribution to true ecumenism".
He has received the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Reagan, America's highest civilian honors.
In 1986, Graham was given North Carolina's highest honor, the North Carolina Award, for public service.
President Bill Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole awarded Graham the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the US Capitol in 1996.
On May 30, 1999, Graham was invited to give the pre-race invocation at the Indianapolis 500.
In December 2001, he was presented with an honorary knighthood, Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), for his international contributions to civic and religious life over 60 years.
On May 31, 2007, the $27 million Billy Graham Library was officially dedicated in Charlotte. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton appeared to celebrate with Graham. A highway in Charlotte bears Graham's name, as does I-240 near Graham's home in Asheville.
For providing a platform during his events for many Christian musical artists, Graham was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999 by the Gospel Music Association. Several songs by various artists have dedicated songs to or about Graham during his lifetime. Singer Michael W. Smith is active in Billy Graham Crusades as well as Samaritan's Purse.
In 2000, former First Lady Nancy Reagan presented the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award to Graham. Graham has been a friend of the Reagans for years.
Graham received the Big Brother of the Year Award for his work on behalf of children. He has been cited by the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for his contributions to race relations. He has received the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion and the Sylvanus Thayer Award for his commitment to "Duty, Honor, Country". The "Billy Graham Children's Health Center" in Asheville is named after and funded by Graham.
A professorial chair is named after him at the Alabama Baptist-affiliated Samford University, the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth. His alma mater Wheaton College has an archive of his papers at the Billy Graham Center. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. Graham has received 20 honorary degrees and refused at least that many more. In San Francisco, CA, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, has often erroneously been called the ''Billy Graham Civic Auditorium'' and falsely considered to be named in his honor, but is actually named after the rock & roll promoter Bill Graham.
The movie ''Billy: The Early Years'' premiered in theaters officially on October 10, 2008, less than one month before Graham's 90th birthday. Graham has yet to comment on the film, but his son, Franklin released a critical statement on August 18, 2008, noting that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association "has not collaborated with nor does it endorse the movie." Graham's eldest daughter Gigi, however, has praised the movie and has also been hired as a consultant to help promote the film.
In 2011, Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Graham was once president, named its newest campus building the Billy Graham Community Life Commons.
Graham has authored the following books:
''Calling Youth to Christ'' (1947)
''America's Hour of Decision'' (1951)
''I Saw Your Sons at War'' (1953)
''Peace with God'' (1953, 1984)
''Freedom from the Seven Deadly Sins'' (1955)
''The Secret of Happiness'' (1955, 1985)
''Billy Graham Talks to Teenagers'' (1958)
''My Answer'' (1960)
''Billy Graham Answers Your Questions'' (1960)
''World Aflame'' (1965)
''The Challenge'' (1969)
''The Jesus Generation'' (1971)
''Angels: God's Secret Agents'' (1975, 1985)
''How to Be Born Again'' (1977)
''The Holy Spirit'' (1978)
''Till Armageddon'' (1981)
''Approaching Hoofbeats'' (1983)
''A Biblical Standard for Evangelists'' (1984)
''Unto the Hills'' (1986)
''Facing Death and the Life After'' (1987)
''Answers to Life's Problems'' (1988)
''Hope for the Troubled Heart'' (1991)
''Storm Warning'' (1992)
''Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham'' (1997, 2007)
''Hope for Each Day'' (2002)
''The Key to Personal Peace'' (2003)
''Living in God's Love: The New York Crusade'' (2005)
''The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World'' (2006)
''Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well'' (2011)
Streaming video clip from 1957 event in Times Square
Oral History Interview with Billy Graham, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
Financial summary of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Category:1918 births
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