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"What impressed me is Billy came with a message, and he took the theater marquees—for instance, Love from a Stranger—as his key and launched off. I wish I could remember the others. He built his message, obviously the same simple gospel message, out of the environment of those marquees. People listened to Billy because he had something to say and he put it in a familiar context."

Though Niebuhr and other liberals didn't listen to Graham, at least he expected their opposition. But the New York City crusade also solidified his final break with fundamentalists, who distanced themselves from Graham in their sharp denunciations of ecumenism.

Graham declined invitations in 1951 and 1954 to preach in New York City, because he judged those invitations not representative of the city's diverse Christian makeup. But in 1957 he accepted the call of the Protestant Council of the City of New York, which was the local arm of the liberal National Council of Churches.

Fundamentalists viewed Graham's decision as a slap in the face and quickly pronounced their displeasure. John R. Rice, one of Graham's last fundamentalist supporters, recognized the historical significance of Graham's New York City crusade. "Dr. Graham is one of the spokesmen, and perhaps the principal spark plug of a great drift away from strict Bible fundamentalism and strict defense of the faith," Rice wrote in his publication, The Sword of the Lord. Since this break, Graham and the evangelical movement have been targets of criticism by fundamentalists, despite their many shared theological commitments.

Graham further irked some Southern fundamentalists by inviting Martin Luther King Jr. to give an opening prayer at the crusade. "A great social revolution is going on in the United States today," Graham said as he introduced King. "Dr. King is one of its leaders, and we appreciate his taking time out of his busy schedule to come and share this service with us tonight."

This show of solidarity was lost on no one. Fundamentalist patriarch Bob Jones Sr.—already wary of Graham's theology—defended segregation against King and warned Graham of the consequences of associating with the civil-rights leader. "Dr. Graham has declared emphatically that he would not hold a meeting anywhere, North or South, where the colored people and the white people would be segregated in the auditorium," Jones said, "and I do not think any time in the foreseeable future the good Christian colored people and the good Christian white people would want to set aside an old established social and religious custom."

Even though Graham's New York City meetings obviously weren't segregated, during the first few nights of the crusade, critics and supporters alike noticed that the audiences looked more like a cross-section of Middle America than the city's diverse streets. Lamenting the absence of African Americans, Graham decided to preach where the blacks lived—Harlem. Later, at a similar event in Brooklyn, Graham for the first time voiced his support for civil rights legislation. Though Graham focused his efforts on spiritual change and emphasized the necessity of inward transformation, he also lobbied for institutional reform.

Graham's foray into Harlem accomplished the goal of attracting blacks to hear the evangelist's message. It also sparked the beginning of a historic collaboration. Two Harlem rally organizers were close friends and advisers to King. Together with King, they huddled with Graham in private strategy meetings and even swapped dreams of conducting joint evangelistic crusades. The union was not to be. King's approach was too political for Graham's taste, and they agreed to seek change in separate spheres.

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