(William Franklin Graham)grāˈəm, 1918–, American evangelist, b. Charlotte, N.C. Graham was ordained a minister in the Southern Baptist Church (1939) and began his career as an evangelist (1944) for the American Youth for Christ movement. In 1949 he received national attention for an extended evangelical campaign in Los Angeles. He subsequently made preaching tours (for which he popularized the term "crusade") in most major U.S. cities and in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, Australia, and Russia. His reputation made him a favored guest among politicians and presidents. Graham is identified with the conservative Protestant movement known as neo-evangelicalism (see fundamentalism) and is co-founder of its popular journal Christianity Today. The Billy Graham Evangelical Association, founded in the early 1950s, publishes Decision magazine and produces programs for radio, television, and screen. Graham retired as head of the association in 2000; Franklin Graham, his son, succeeded him as its leader.

See his autobiography (1997); biographies by W. C. McLaughlin (1960) and M. Frady (1979).

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

-19754-