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Augustine Gregory John (born 11 March 1945 Biography, Gus John website. .) is a Grenada-born writer, education campaigner, consultant, lecturer and researcher, who moved to the UK in 1964. He has worked in the fields of education policy, management and international development. As a social analyst, he specialises in social audits, change management, policy formulation and review, and programme evaluation and development. Since the 1960s, he has been active in issues of education and schooling in Britain's inner cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and London, and was the first black Director of Education and Leisure Services in Britain. "Fifty Years of Struggle: Gus John at 70", The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 7, no. 8, March 2015.
He has also worked in a number of university settings, including as visiting Faculty Professor of Education at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, as an associate professor of education and honorary fellow of the London Centre for Leadership in Learning at the UCL Institute of Education, University of London, Gus John profile at The Guardian. and visiting professor at Coventry University. "Gus John Leads Coventry University Human Rights Conference", The Voice, 18 October 2016. Retrirved 6 April 2025. A respected public speaker and media commentator, he works internationally as an executive coach and a management and social investment consultant.
At the age of 19, he went to England, transferring to the Theology programme at Oxford University. He became Chair of the Education Subcommittee of the Oxford Committee for Racial Integration (OCRI), and recalls:
Having been a Dominican friar from 1964 to 1967, John split with the order because of the church's links with apartheid South Africa.Fran Abrams, "This is Gus John; they say he's not anti-racist enough", The Independent, 21 July 1996.Emily Rogers, "Big interview: A lifetime of equality work - Gus John, Gus John Partnership", Children & Young People Now, 2 August 2006. In the late 1960s he took employment as a gravedigger by day while working by night in an inner-city youth club.
He was a member of the Council of the Institute of Race Relations in the early 1970s. In 1972, Because They're Black, a book on which he collaborated with Derek Humphry, was awarded the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize for its contribution to racial harmony in Britain, Derek Humphry biography at Ergo. and Gus John went on to produce many other notable publications. His 1976 work The New Black Presence in Britain was "One of the earliest texts written by a Black Christian in Britain that began to articulate a distinct and conscious experience of black religious sensibilities" and he has been called described as "a grand patriarch of black theology in Britain". "Black Theology in Britain by Way of Published Works", in Anthony G. Reddie, Black Theology in Transatlantic Dialogue, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, p. 19. .
By 1981, John was the northern organiser of the New Cross Massacre Action Committee, and one of the organisers of the "Black People's Day of Action" held on 2 March, a response to the New Cross Fire on 18 January in which 13 young black people died. Following the uprisings in Moss Side in July 1981 he chaired the Moss Side Defence Committee, and he was adviser to the Liverpool 8 Defence Committee following the Toxteth Uprisings that same year.
He was the co-ordinator of the Black Parents Movement in Manchester, founded the Education for Liberation book service and helped to organise the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books in Manchester, London and Bradford. He was a member of the 1987 Macdonald Inquiry into Racism and Racial Violence in Manchester Schools and subsequently co-authored (with Ian Macdonald, Reena Bhavnani and Lily Khan) Murder in the Playground: the Burnage Report. He was a founder trustee of the George Padmore Institute under the chairmanship of John La Rose. In 1989 John was appointed Director of Education in Hackney and was the first black person to hold such a position.Alliance for Inclusive Education. "Talking to Professor Gus John", Inclusion Now, Issue 37, 3 February 2014. When the two departments were amalgamated he became Hackney's first Director of Education and Leisure Services. "Prof Gus John", George Padmore Institute.
He has contributed to such UK outlets as The Guardian Gus John profile, The Guardian. and The Voice ,Gus John, "When Crime Meets Race", The Voice , 17 August 2021.
Writings
John's writings encompass reports, journalism and a variety of non-fiction books, including in 2023 Don't Salvage the Empire Windrush and Blazing Trails: Stories of a Heroic Generation, both published by New Beacon Books. Reviewing these recent works in the Camden New Journal, Angela Cobbinah said of John: "Never one to mince his words and with a stern public persona to boot, he has been a thorn in the side of successive governments from his position on the front line of the anti-racist struggle for the last six decades." In Blazing Trails, John pays tribute "to a truly heroic generation: twenty-two individuals whose lives were dedicated to the struggle for racial equality and social justice in post-war Britain", while in Don't Salvage the Empire Windrush he "debunks the notion that the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948 marked the beginning of the evolution and growth of multiracial Britain", which narrative "displaces the history of those settled Black communities who had struggled against racism and marginalisation in Britain prior to its arrival". "Book launch by Prof. Gus John in conversation with Prof. Lez Henry", Lambeth Libraries. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
He chaired the "Round Table" for the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in October 2006/March 2007 and produced Born to be Great, the NUT's Charter on Promoting the Achievement of Black Caribbean Boys (2007). "Born to be Great – A Charter on Promoting the Achievement of Black Caribbean Boys", NUT. "Gus John addresses Lib-Dems' Race Equality Task Force" , 25 April 2012. Reproduced on Gus John website. In 2010, he produced The Case for a Learners' Charter for Schools, a charter that articulates the educational entitlement of all school students and the rights and responsibilities of everybody engaged in the schooling process – local authorities, school governors, teachers, pupils and parents. "Launching 'The Case for a Learner's Charter for Schools, 17 June 2011. Gus talks, at Gus John website. .
He was a member of Channel 4's Street Weapons Commission The Street Weapons Commission Report, London: Channel 4, 2008. and later adviser to London Mayor Boris Johnson on serious youth violence in the capital. "Gus John – Live and Direct", School Speakers.
Since 2006, John has been a member of the African Union's Technical Committee of Experts working on "modalities for reunifying Africa and its global diaspora". "The reunification of Africans as a people", Rising Continent, 8 July 2012. He has advised member states in Africa and the Caribbean (Cameroon, Somaliland, Lagos State Government, Jamaica) in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals related to education and youth. "More about Gus John" , official website. Between 2004 and 2012 John worked on Niger Delta affairs and in 2012 collaborated with Kingsley Kuku, the then special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, and David Keighe on a development manual entitled Remaking the Niger Delta: Challenges and Opportunities.Kingsley K. Kuku, Remaking the Niger Delta: Challenges and Opportunities, Mandingo Publishing, 2012, . "Gus John presents radical new book on the Niger Delta", Niger230.com, 20 September 2012. "Kuku launches book, 'Remaking the Niger-Delta, Checkout Magazine, 22 September 2012. In 2008, he co-authored with Samina Zahir Speaking Truth to Power, which resulted from research for Arts Council England on identity, aesthetics and ethnicity in theatre and the arts.Professor Gus John and Dr Samina Zahir, "Speaking Truth to Power", Sustained Theatre, 2008. "Identity, Aesthetics, Ethnicity: 'Speaking Truth to Power – a diversity of voices in theatre and the arts in England, Hybrid Consulting.
Among other recent undertakings, he has since 2011 been a consultant to the Methodist Church, UK, on implementing Equality and Human Rights legislation, and in 2012 was appointed to chair the Expert Advisory Group on Equality, Diversity and Social Mobility as part of the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR). "Professor Gus John appointed to chair LETR Equality, Diversity and Social Mobility Group", Solicitors Regulation Authority, 20 June 2012. He was commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to undertake a comparative review of how the SRA has dealt with disciplinary cases and especially the over-representative number of black and ethnic minority solicitors that are sanctioned by that regulator,Jonathan Rayner, "Professor Gus John to carry out SRA racism review", Law Society Gazette, 7 August 2012. John's report being published in 2014. "Independent Comparative Case Review", Solicitors Regulation Authority, 3 June 2014. "The Gus John report – Law Society response", The Law Society, 4 June 2014.
John made a submission to the United Kingdom Parliament's 2017 Youth Violence Commission, which he subsequently published in digest form.
In 2019, John quit from an advisory body to the Church of England, after Archbishop Justin Welby endorsed the criticism of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn by the chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, making allegations of antisemitism. John said: "What gives the archbishop of Canterbury the right to endorse the chief rabbi's scaremongering about Corbyn and adopt such a lofty moral position in defence of the Jewish population?"Harriet Sherwood, "Academic quits C of E body over chief rabbi's Labour antisemitism comments", The Guardian, 3 December 2019.
The journalist Jon Snow, who himself refused an OBE, made a special study of the honours system, writing in The Independent: "Gus John, the Afro-Caribbean former Director of Education for Hackney, explained to me what it felt like for him to be approached with the offer of being appointed CBE. 'I regard the Commander of the British Empire as part of the iconography of British imperialism,' he said."Jon Snow, "Medals that lost their lustre", The Independent, 28 December 2003. Snow subsequently commented to a Parliamentary Select Committee investigating criticism of the honours system on John's position: "As he had fought his whole life trying to unpick the consequences of British imperialism, he felt it was a pretty serious dishonour to have to wander round the planet henceforth as a Commander of the very institution he had tried to demolish." Quoted in Select Committee on Public Administration Fifth Report, Parliament, 13 July 2004.
In 2015, Gus John's 70th birthday was marked by events honouring his five decades of activism in Britain: on 11 March at Conway Hall, "Fifty Years of Struggle: Gus John at 70", Institute of Race Relations, 11 March 2015. on 14 March at the British Film Institute, in conversation with Gary Younge, "Gary Younge and Professor Gus John in conversation | BFI", YouTube, 10 April 2015. "African Odysseys", BFI. and on 19 April at the Phoenix Cinema, in conversation with Margaret Busby. "Professor Gus John: 50 years of struggle" , Phoenix Cinema.
A 1979 portrait of John, by the photographer Brian Shuel, is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
Professor Gus John was voted one of the "100 Great Black Britons" in the 2020 poll and book initiated by Patrick Vernon. "100 Great Black Britons" , 2020.Rhian Lubin, "Black heroes who helped shape Britain - from Queen of the Ivories to a Tudor trumpeter", Mirror, 11 September 2020.
In October 2020, John was named by FutureLearn on a list of "12 Black history pioneers with careers that will inspire you", together with Lewis Latimer, Shirley Jackson, Lisa Gelobter, Yvonne Connolly, Susie King Taylor, Mary Seacole, Alexa Canady, Charles DeWitt Watts, Kanya King, Oprah Winfrey, and Madam C. J. Walker.
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