Reaching out to African Americans during his New York crusade was an expression of the growing belief that there should be no color line in the body of Christ. It also happened to be evangelistically useful. Such a conviction did not mean that Graham was a racial liberal. He wanted African Americans on his team both to reach black and African audiences and to carefully challenge white audiences with a message of unity in Christ. Above all, he wanted black evangelicals who agreed with him that the race problem and its solution were spiritual.
