James Stuart McKnight (November 15, 1884 – December 25, 1950) was a National Guard officer who served in World War I, an attorney and a member of the City Council in Los Angeles, California, in 1931 and 1932.

"His clothes are always well pressed, his hanky peeks from the top coat pocket, his glasses are always polished, and his fair hair is always neatly brushed back from his high forehead.

"[6] According to his wife, Anita, McKnight was promoted to lieutenant colonel in May 1919 and was retained in an executive capacity in Paris when "the American Relief Administration began to close all its missions and all financial matters were taken over by the United States Grain Corporation.

An investigation was undertaken by a board of inquiry and, after fifteen witnesses were heard, at the end McKnight was ordered by his superior, Adjutant-General Boree, to resign.

In June 1930, McKnight represented Mrs. Anna Butcher, a sister of pioneer temperance advocate Carrie Nation in a competence hearing.

[4] McKnight was one of the six council members who in July 1931 lost a vote to appeal a judge's decision ordering an end to racial restrictions in city-operated swimming pools.

In April 1933, a jury in Judge Fletcher Bowron's court found him innocent of a criminal charge that he had lied to a grand jury about the renewal of a city contract with a Fontana, California, company for garbage disposal,[13] but in 1934 he and former Councilman Roy Donley were tried on a charge of agreeing to accept a $10,000 bribe to influence their votes on the garbage contract.