Skinner was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1957 and was raised in a traditional Southern Baptist family. As a pre-teen, Skinner was greatly impacted by the civil rights movement and assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which took place in his hometown. Spending weekends and summers in his ancestral state of Mississippi also left a deep impression for justice and reconciliation upon Skinner.
Skinner’s family moved from Memphis to Spring, Texas in 1970. He attended and graduated from Spring High School in 1975. As a young man, he was active in student government, local political campaigns and chosen by the local state representative to represent his high school in Austin, Texas for a state-wide student government venue. It was during this period that Skinner also studied the work of Dr. E.V. Hill of Los Angeles and his impact on crime in the infamous Watts area.