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Exerpt
A Prophet Out of Harlem
"The Liberator has come!" With that declaration, African-American evangelist Tom Skinner concluded his keynote address at Urbana '70, InterVarsity's missions conference in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The gathering of more than 11,000 college students leaped to its feet, exploding in applause and cheers.
Jesus Christ was the "radical" Liberator whom Skinner proclaimed. But for the hundreds of young African-American evangelicals scattered across that assembly hall, Skinner himself was a liberator-their ambassador to the white evangelical church. At last, their struggles and concerns had the chance for a legitimate hearing.
There had been a buzz in the air at Urbana even before Tom Skinner took the stage. College students from all over the U.S. had descended on the campus during the last five days of 1970 to study their Bibles, sing hymns, and hear such speakers as John Stott and Leighton Ford talk about discipleship and world evangelization. But on the second evening of the event, with Skinner at the helm, the student missions conference made a significant departure from its usual program.
In its ninth triennial offering, the Urbana convention had become an influential and highly anticipated occasion, where countless young adults made decisions to enter full-time Christian service. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (Urbana's sponsor) was known as one of the evangelical movement's premier campus ministries. And the Urbana conference was its prime laboratory for mobilization and renewal.
But there had also been controversy surrounding the event. Three years earlier at Urbana '67, about 60 African-American students, all InterVarsity members, had come to the conference with idealistic notions of finding a connecting point for their black evangelical sentiments. What they found instead was a "white" event, not only in terms of attendance, but also in terms of vision. For the black attendee, there seemed a disregard for the presence and needs of students from non-Anglo cultures.
"I went there bright-eyed and naïve," remembers Carl Ellis, then a sophomore at the historically black Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Virginia. "But it didn't take long for me to realize something wasn't right. I didn't see anybody from my neighborhood there. I didn't see anyone talking about missions to the cities or about the concerns of the black population. And I said to myself, 'I hope these people aren't deliberately doing this.' "
Ellis and other African-American students who had the same misgivings tempered their frustration by an unshakable commitment to the biblical ideals of evangelicalism. But if they could not find fellowship and encouragement through organizations such as InterVarsity, where were they to go?
The students gathered for an impromptu prayer meeting that went on for hours. "We weren't planning on staying up all night," Ellis continues, "but it was an evening of absolute, fervent prayer that God would raise up an army of African Americans who would be able to minister to our community, our people."
After Urbana '67, Carl Ellis and others recruited and campaigned to ensure the next Urbana convention would not be without a notable black presence. Ellis, Hampton Institute's InterVarsity president, was named to the national advisory committee for Urbana '70. He convinced InterVarsity that a 28-year-old African-American evangelist by the name of Tom Skinner should be added to the list of plenary speakers. As a result, in 1970, more than 500 black students and Christian leaders flocked to the Urbana convention. The black evangelical renaissance that the students had prayed about three years earlier actually felt within reach.
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