The Rev. Billy Graham appealed for racial unity among Cincinnatians as he opened his four-day mission Thursday evening.

        “We are all neighbors of each other,” the Rev. Mr. Graham said. “Be a neighbor to the person next to you in Cincinnati. Whether their color is dark or it is light, we are to love each other and work together.”

        While most of his message centered on salvation through Jesus Christ, his comments about race relations early in his sermon drew loud applause from the nearly 35,000 people at Paul Brown Stadium.

        And during the altar call at the end of his sermon, the Rev. Mr. Graham disclosed that he had met this week with the Rev. Damon Lynch III, a leader in the economic boycott against Cincinnati, along with his father, the Rev. Damon Lynch Jr., a Graham mission organizer. The Rev. Mr. Graham, who had rejected a call from boycotters to cancel his mission, said that, “One of the leaders of the boycott paid me a visit. We had a wonderful fellowship and the Rev. Damon Lynch III prayed for a scene just like this — that hundreds would come down and receive Christ.”

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch III described the Tuesday meeting as brief but respectful. While he said the 83-year-old evangelist was a man of God, the younger Rev. Mr. Lynch also expressed disappointment that calls for him to honor the boycott were ignored.

        “Everything has now been characterized as a healing event. It doesn't bring any healing to the families who have lost their sons or to communities who don't see their own dollars put back into that community,” the Rev. Mr. Lynch III said. “It brings a feel-good feeling, but not real healing.”

        The Rev. Mr. Graham's message of racial unity had been much-anticipated.

        “He just touched on the issue of racial unity long enough for us to have something to think about,” said Mary Chenault, 66, an African-American woman from North Avondale.

        “But it's up to us now to take it back to our churches and communities. Tonight alone won't turn this city around. It will take a whole lot more, on behalf of all of us.”

        While it was a predominantly white crowd on the mission's first night, African-Americans mingled with whites.

        “I hope he can revitalize, energize and heal some of the racial differences in the city and that we can move forward,” said Sylvia Carter, 68, of Kennedy Heights. “Some of the people from different races are communicating with each other, and it may help each group to understand each other.”

        Matters related to race have always been close to the Rev. Mr. Graham's heart. On Easter Sunday in 1964, he held a rally attended by 35,000 people — whites and blacks — in Birmingham, Ala., six months after the deaths of four African-American children in a church bombing.

        The Rev. Mr. Graham put one condition on the rally: It had to be integrated.

        Cincinnati has struggled in the area of race relations during the past 15 months. Race riots tore the city apart in April 2001.

        An economic boycott against downtown was declared.

        Though planning began prior to the riots, the 2002 Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Billy Graham Mission has been touted by local religious leaders as a spiritual salve that could heal the city's racial wounds.

        In a letter to the community that appeared in Thursday's Enquirer, the Rev. Mr. Graham outlined what it will take for Cincinnati to overcome its deep racial divide.

        “As someone who has lived through the tumultuous '50s and '60s and witnessed firsthand the strife and turmoil caused by racial divisions, my heart is burdened for Cincinnati,” he said.

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