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Not that Long Ago, America Was a Different Place
I want to take you back in time more than 60 years. On Wednesday, May 15, 1957, Rev. Billy Graham began preaching a series of evangelistic meetings in New York City that would become historic. The
meetings began in Madison Square Garden and continued for an unprecedented 16 weeks. On what was planned to be the final night of the Crusade (July 20, 1957), 100,000 people jammed Yankee Stadium to hear Billy Graham preach [see above image]. At that time, it was the largest crowd in the stadium’s history.
Yet this service wasn’t the last. The evangelistic meetings were extended because the response was so overwhelming. As we have affirmed, from start to finish, the Crusade lasted 16 weeks. An estimated 2.4 million people attended, and over 61,000 people responded to Rev. Graham’s call to follow Christ. The final meeting was a rally held in Times Square on the evening of Sunday, September 1.
Ruby Reisdorph and her husband, both of whom later would become missionaries to the Philippines, attended the event at Times Square. In a radio interview in 1979, Ruby recalled the remarkable scenes she had her husband witnessed.
We went out early because my husband wanted to see the effect of a service like that on the throngs. We hardly were prepared for what we saw. Everything was geared with excitement which reigned all over in that area. Where it seemed like all New York City had come. I know there came bold headlines out in the paper: “Coney Island Deserted.” Many, many people flocked to that meeting. It looked like a sea of people in every direction.
Hear a 2-minute clip from the message that Rev. Graham delivered to the thousands who came out to hear him that night.
Copyright © 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.