Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) of a person, having kinky hair; thus black, or ? Jewish (see cit. 1876).

1848		‘Major Jones’ Sketches of Travel 146: The kinky-headed cuss looked at me sideways and rolled the whites of his eyes at me like he was gwine to have a fit of hidryfoby.
1856		Anti-Slavery Bugle (New-Lisbon, OH) 2 Feb. 2/3: These kinky-headed vagabonds had as good a right to vote as their straight-haired relatives.
1867		Nashville Union & Dispatch (TN) 27 Aug. 3/2: In some weay this kinky-headed and black-skinned negro is the progeny of Adam and Eve.
1876		J. Miller First Fam’lies in the Sierras 10: There was a run that night on the little Jew shop. [...] Before midnight the little kinky-headed Israelite had not a shirt, collar, or handkerchief.
1889		Wichita Eagle (KS) 6 Mar. 4/2: Bradley was a kinky-headed mulatto.
1899		Harry von Tilzer [song title] Mammy’s Kinky-Headed Coon.
1900		Richmond Dispatch (VA) 4 Mar. 6/5: You darned, black, kinky-headed rascal!
1910		L.A. Herald 3 Nov. 9/4: ‘Little Jeff,’ a kinky-headed black-faced boy.
1922		‘Stand Back, Black Man’ in T.W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes 11: Stan’ back, black man! / Cain’t you see / Dat a kinky-headed chap / Hain’t nothin’ side o’ me?
1928		N.I. White Amer. Negro Folk-Songs 316: [reported from Auburn, Ala., 1915–1916] I had a tall, long, kinky-headed woman.
1929		C. McKay Banjo 314: This kinky-headed, big-laughing black boy.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 27: There were black, kinky-headed, frizzly-bearded rabbis seen about the street.