Reverend William Franklin “Billy” Graham, Jr.
Crypt
Chas Fagan (2024)
About This Statue
Reverend William Franklin “Billy” Graham, Jr., was born November 7, 1918, in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was one of the most famous evangelical preachers of the 20th century and the fourth private citizen to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.
- Starting in 1949, Graham began holding revival meetings he called “crusades,” and sometimes these meetings lasted for weeks in one city.
- He came to national prominence during his Los Angeles series when William Randolph Hearst's and Henry Luce's publications provided press coverage.
- In 1950, he founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which oversaw the production of hundreds of crusades across the country and around the world. He embraced varied media to reach new audiences.
- Graham linked Christianity with Cold War patriotism and demonstrated some support for civil rights, including occasional insistence on integrating his audiences.
- Over the course of his life he received many honorifics including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1983), the Congressional Gold Medal (1996), and an honorary knighthood (2001) awarded by Queen Elizabeth II.
- Graham lay in honor in the Capitol Rotunda February 28-March 1, 2018.
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