John Rex was a South African-born British sociologist. Born in Port Elizabeth, he was radicalised after working for the South African Bantu Affairs Administration and moved to Britain. He was a lecturer at the universities of Leeds, Birmingham, Durham, Warwick, Aston, Toronto, Cape Town and New York. He was also a member of the UNESCO International Experts' Committee on Racism and Race Prejudice and president of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Racial and Ethnic Minorities.