Kinney (February 25, 1879 – November 6, 1940) was an African Nova Scotian accountant, community leader, and a co-founder of the Colored Hockey League.

James Alexander Ross Kinney was born on February 25, 1879, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

[4] A home for Black orphans in Nova Scotia was proposed by James Robinson Johnston in 1908.

[5] Following the untimely death of Johnston on March 3, 1915, Kinney took over as the black community's lay minister and lead advocate for building the home.

In 1918, he played a key role in fundraising for the construction of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children.