All of these roles carried considerable ambiguity for a black evangelist preaching a colorblind gospel. Jones took the positive view—that his blackness opened doors for him—rather than the more cynical interpretation that his blackness typecast him into certain channels of ministry. But when he later looked back on joining the Graham team from the vantage of nearly half a century, he was remarkably unsentimental about the role he believed he had played in the organization. Graham was looking for “someone who could transcend racial boundaries; someone whose theology was sound and whose approach
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