Urbana InterVarsity Paul Gibson, Elward Ellis, Carl Ellis and Rev. Bill Bentley

Ruth Lewis (Bentley) was IVCF's third Black staff worker. She worked with students at the Black schools in the Southeast. Ruth's ministry on campus was during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

1967	200 Black students attended Urbana 67. After an all night prayer meeting by a group of these Black students, they presented a petition to IV leaders. The list of demands called for changes in IVCF if it was to touch the lives of Black American college students. It was a scary time for IVCF leadership.
1967-1976	Paul Gibson became the 4th Black IVCF staff worker. At Harvard, Paul was discipled by his White staffworker, Butch Dickerson, who challenged him to come and help lead IV in reaching Black students. Paul pioneered Black student work in Southern California before moving to work in New York City in 1970. Paul was part of that Black prayer meeting at Urbana 1967.

 

1968

After Urbana 67, IV's President John Alexander called a meeting with Black student leaders Elward Ellis, Carl Ellis and Rev. Bill Bentley to discuss the issues coming out of the petition given at Urbana. Results: - An Urbana Student Advisory Committee was formed. - A promotional film to recruit Black students to come to Urbana 70 was created. - Upon the recommendation of these Black student leaders, Tom Skinner was invited to be a plenary speaker at Urbana 70 where 600-700 Black students attended. The largest number of Black students until Urbana 2003.

1970

Thom Hopler and his wife Marcia come back to the US after spending 10 years in Kenya withAfrican Inland Mission. Thom gave IVCF it's Multiethnic Biblical Base and a view of God’s work in history crossing cultural divides. Neil Rendall moves to Metro NY/NJ as the Area Director and partners with Paul Gibson and Conrad Sauer to provide leadership for the NY/NJ ethnic concerns.

1975	IVCF Vice President, James McLeish, and Southeast Regional Director, Pete Hammond, partner with Paul Gibson and the Black staff in the country to create the Black Staff Fellowship (BSF).

1980	Elward Ellis joins InterVarsity and accepts the appointment as the first National Director of the Black Campus Ministry.

1983	Elward Ellis, Ruth Lewis (Cole), Jeanette Yep and Regional Director, Jim Lundgren, pioneer “The Multi-Cultural Institute” as a national training event for staff from all four ethnic streams in InterVarsity at that time: Black, Asian, White and Hispanic.