Ross, James Alexander
(born: 1867 - died: 1949)Born in Columbus, KY, James A. Ross was a lawyer, politician, real estate broker, journalist, editor, and publisher. His family left Kentucky when Ross was a child; he was raised in Cairo, IL, and later moved farther north.
Ross was editor and proprietor of The Reformer (Detroit) and publisher of the monthly magazine Gazetteer and Guide (NY), written for African American Pullman Porters and railroad and hotel employees. He declined the U. S. Consul appointment to Cape Haitien in 1893. Ross was in charge of the Negro exhibit at the 1901 Pan-American Exhibition, held in Buffalo, NY, and he was Vice-President of the National Colored Democratic League Bureau in Chicago in 1912. He also served as Race Relations Executive for the Works Progress Administration in Albany, NY. In 1946, Ross was elected president of the New York State Colored Real Estate Brokers Exchange.
James A. Ross was the husband of Cora B. Hawkins Ross (b. 1874 in Canada). The family of six lived on Michigan Street in Buffalo, NY in 1900, according to the U.S. Federal Census. For more see Who's Who of the Colored Race, 1915; and "James A. Ross," New York Times, 4/28/1949, p. 31.
