in California and Massachusetts. They asked why he never
addressed racism in the South.
Billy chose to make his stand in the heart of the segregated
South. He initially agreed to segregate the audience during his
1952 campaign in Jackson, Mississippi, but rejected Governor
Hugh White’s suggestion to conduct separate meetings for blacks.
Meanwhile Billy prepared to make a much bolder statement. Hold-
ing segregated events had always struck him as wrong, but he’d
never chosen to take decisive action—until now. Walking toward
the ropes that separated blacks and whites, Billy tore them down.
Mystified and uncomfortable ushers tried to put the ropes
back up. Billy personally stopped them.
This symbolically powerful gesture marked a major ministry
watershed. He never again led a segregated campaign.
“There is no scriptural basis for segregation. It may be there
are places where such is desirable to both races, but certainly not
in the church,” Billy told his Mississippi audience. “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.”
Nearly two years before the famed Brown v. Board of Education
decision, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared “separate but
equal” arrangements unconstitutional, Billy threw his clout
behind the Civil Rights Movement. Though tearing down the
ropes in Jackson seems in retrospect a simple decision, his action
earned the respect of many blacks and the enmity of segrega-
tionists. In so doing, he signaled to his followers that racial
inequality should not be tolerated in the church.
Long-term colleague Sherwood Wirt in a letter to us said of
Billy Graham, “He outgrew Southern racism much earlier than
his Southern colleagues did. He thought like a large ruler. His
vision outstripped all of us.”
■ ■ ■It may be that had it not been for a black man, we would never
have heard of Billy Graham. On the Charlotte dairy farm, as he
Expanding the Growing Edge