John Glanville Gill was an American Unitarian minister, scholar in history, and civil rights activist.

There he worked with other ministers to try to integrate public schools, raise awareness about racial discrimination, and end segregation practices.

He earned a Ph.D. in history at Harvard University, writing a dissertation on Elijah Parish Lovejoy, martyr in 1837 to abolitionism and freedom of the press.

[1] As a scholar studying pre-Civil War history in Alton, Illinois, John Gill moved to the city in 1944.

He joined the Alton Council of Churches, which sponsored an annual training institute for religious leaders at Shurtleff College.

Local racists were enraged and staged Ku Klux Klan burnings of crosses at Salu and Riverfront parks.

[2] In 1947, three years after moving to Alton, Gill earned his Ph.D. at Harvard for his thesis entitled "The Issues Involved in the Death of the Rev.