Elgin James is a filmmaker, musician and a former member of Friends Stand United

Friends stand united

Friends Stand United is a national organization in the United States which is classified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a street gang, a distinction that FSU members deny...

 (FSU), a Boston, Massachusetts area group in the early 1990s. FSU has been classified by several law enforcement agencies as a gang

Gang

A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...

, a distinction that James and FSU deny.

Early life

After a short time in orphanages and foster homes, James (who is of mixed race) was raised by civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 activists on a rural farm in the Northeast. With a crop of marijuana in the backyard and alcohol and drug abuse in the house, James formed strong anti-drinking and anti-drug beliefs which later led him to be a pivotal figure in the 1990s militant straight edge

Straight edge

Straight edge is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs. It was a direct reaction to the sexual revolution, hedonism, and excess associated with punk rock. For some, this extends to not engaging in promiscuous sex, following a...

 movement within the punk subculture

Punk subculture

The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...

.
He had also become a vegetarian or vegan at age 11 after watching the animals he raised on the farm slaughtered.

James had discovered punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 through an older foster brother and attended concerts by seminal hardcore punk

Hardcore punk

Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...

 bands Black Flag

Black Flag (band)

Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...

, Agnostic Front

Agnostic Front

Agnostic Front is an American hardcore band. The band began playing hardcore similar to their contemporaries, and were thrust to the forefront of the burgeoning New York hardcore scene in the mid-1980s with their widely regarded 1984 classic Victim in Pain before evolving to incorporate thrash...

 and Millions of Dead Cops. He was arrested for the first time at age 12, and by 14 he ended up in juvenile hall. There he rejected the pacifist

Pacifism

Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...

 beliefs of his parents (who had marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

 and the Freedom Riders movement), and began studying the writings of Malcolm X

Malcolm X

Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...

, Stokely Carmichael

Stokely Carmichael

Kwame Ture , also known as Stokely Carmichael, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party...

 and Huey P. Newton

Huey P. Newton

Huey Percy Newton was an American political and urban activist who, along with Bobby Seale, co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.-Early life:...

, fusing them with aggressive punk ideals.

James left juvenile hall, and inspired by civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 attorneys William Kunstler

William Kunstler

William Moses Kunstler was an American self-described "radical lawyer" and civil rights activist, known for his controversial clients...

 and Morris Dees

Morris Dees

Morris Seligman Dees, Jr. is the co-founder and chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center , and a former direct mail marketeer for book publishing. Along with his law partner, Joseph J...

, left for Antioch College

Antioch College

Antioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was the founder and the flagship institution of the six-campus Antioch University system. Founded in 1852 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1853 with politician and...

 at age 17 to study pre-law. During a break in his first semester, he was involved in a gang fight and beaten in the back of the head with a baseball bat, which left him with left hemispheric brain damage. He could not speak or move the right side of his body. After intensive physical and speech therapy he eventually recovered his speech and motor skills, but he ended up homeless, living on the streets and in squat

Squatting

Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....

s across the country. Eventually he settled in Boston, Massachusetts.

FSU

In Boston, James began singing for hardcore punk band Wrecking Crew and befriended a multi-racial group of kids from the tough areas of Boston and Brockton, Massachusetts

Brockton, Massachusetts

Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population was 93,810 in the 2010 Census. Brockton, along with Plymouth, are the county seats of Plymouth County...

. They started FSU (originally 'Fuck Shit Up', however it came to be known as 'Friends Stand United' or 'Forever Stand United'). They formed to fight back against the influx of white power skinhead gangs in the area. Having successfully eliminated several neo-Nazi

Neo-Nazism

Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....

 groups, James turned his attention to drug dealers, going, in his words, “right after the heart of the enemy, money”. He would rob drug dealers and then give half of that money to local charities.

While part of FSU, using a tactic learned from the United States government, James and other FSU members set up an "arms for hostages" scenario in which they traded handgun

Handgun

A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....

s with inner city gang members for pit bull

Pit bull

A Pit bull is any of several breeds of dog in the molosser breed group.Many jurisdictions that restrict pit bulls, including Ontario, Canada,, Miami, Florida, U.S...

s used in dog fighting rings. The dogs would then be nursed back to health and fostered until safe homes were found for them.

The founding core of FSU eventually splintered, with a large section moving on to motorcycle gangs including the Outlaws. The split was amicable, but James and other founding members decided to leave a more positive legacy and steer FSU away from the criminal world. They established the Foundation Fund, which set up scholarships at local universities (Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

 and Suffolk University Law School

Suffolk University Law School

Suffolk University Law School, also known as Suffolk Law School or SULS, is one of the professional graduate schools of Suffolk University. Suffolk University Law School is a private, non-sectarian, law school located in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Suffolk University Law School was founded in...

) in the names of FSU members who had died. The fund also holds yearly benefit concerts to raise money for charities that reflect "hardcore punk culture" (teen homelessness, anti-handgun violence, suicide prevention

Suicide prevention

Suicide prevention is an umbrella term for the collective efforts of local citizen organizations, mental health practitioners and related professionals to reduce the incidence of suicide....

 and local orphanages).

James and FSU were featured on National Geographic TV, the History Channel's Gangland series and in Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine.

Music and film career

James began his music career playing in straight edge

Straight edge

Straight edge is a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs. It was a direct reaction to the sexual revolution, hedonism, and excess associated with punk rock. For some, this extends to not engaging in promiscuous sex, following a...

 hardcore bands such as Wrecking Crew, 454 Big Block

454 big block

454 Big Block was an American metalcore band from Boston, Massachusetts.- History :454 Big Block was formed by four members of the recently disbanded Boston Hardcore band Wrecking Crew...

 and Righteous Jams

Righteous Jams

Righteous Jams, which was formed by Joey Cardona and Jesse Standhard in 2002 as Invasion, is a Boston, Massachusetts-based straight edge hardcore punk band. Only one demo was released under the name Invasion before the group was renamed Righteous Jams in 2003, following the addition of Elgin James...

. Later, James would experiment with country-influenced solo work that has been critically acclaimed and described as "hooligan folk" by the Boston Phoenix, and "folk-punk

Folk punk

Folk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade...

" by Wonkavision magazine.

In 2006, James moved to Los Angeles, California to work as a filmmaker. He wrote and directed the short film Goodnight Moon, starring Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy is an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, formed in 2001. The band consists of vocalist, guitarist and composer Patrick Stump, bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. The band released five studio albums from 2003–2008...

, which was released by THINKFilm

THINKFilm

THINKFilm is a privately held production and distribution company founded in September 2001. It has been a division of David Bergstein’s Capitol Films since 2006. Bergstein also serves as the company’s chairman...

. In December 2008, James was announced as a fellow for the Sundance

Sundance

Sundance Resort is a ski resort located northeast of Provo, Utah, spanning over on the slopes of Mount Timpanogos in Utah's Wasatch Range. Snow skiing began on the site in 1944...

 Screenwriters lab, whose alumni include Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...

, Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has written and directed five feature films: Hard Eight , Boogie Nights , Magnolia , Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood...

, Alison Anders and Darren Aronofsky

Darren Aronofsky

Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...

.

Arrest

James was arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 on July 14, 2009, stemming from an incident four years earlier. He was charged with a criminal complaint of federal attempted extortion

Extortion

Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...

 filed in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. It is alleged that in 2005 James sanctioned an attack on an individual who had past ties to white power

White nationalism

White nationalism is a political ideology which advocates a racial definition of national identity for white people. White separatism and white supremacism are subgroups within white nationalism. The former seek a separate white nation state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and...

 politics. James is then reported as to have said that the man could avoid further trouble if he made a $5,000 “donation” to FSU. After that incident, the FBI became involved, and after another attack, the victim scheduled a meeting with James to give the $5,000 while the FBI had surveillance on the encounter. The individual has been revealed to be a member of the band Mest

Mest

Mest was a pop punk band from Blue Island, Illinois. The band's lineup, prior to their breakup in 2006, consisted of vocalist and guitarist Tony Lovato, guitarist Jeremiah Rangel, bassist Matt Lovato, and drummer Nick Gigler...

. Speculation has been raised that lead singer Tony Lovato

Tony Lovato

Anthony John Lovato is a singer and guitarist best known for his time fronting the pop-punk band Mest.-Confederate Storm:...

's previous ties to white power groups were the reason why the band was targeted, given FSU's anti-racist stance. However the specific Mest member who was targeted has yet to be revealed.

Discography

1992- Wrecking Crew, single, (vocals)

1995- 454 Big Block, "Your Jesus," Century Media (vocals)

1996- 454 Big Block, s/t single, Big Wheel Rec (vocals)

1997- 454 Big Block, "Save Me From Myself," Big Wheel Rec (vocals)

1997- The World is My Fuse, s/t single, Espo records (vocals)

1998- The World Is My Fuse, "Drunk," Single, Espo Records (vocals, guitars)

1999- The World Is My Fuse, "Good Intentions," Espo Records (vocals, guitars)

2002- The Jaded Salingers, "s/t," Espo Records (vocals, guitars)

2003- Elgin James "For Carol.." Lonesome Recordings (vocals, guitars)

2004- Elgin James, "Long Way Home," Lonesome Recordings comp (vocals, guitars)

2004- Righteous Jams

Righteous Jams

Righteous Jams, which was formed by Joey Cardona and Jesse Standhard in 2002 as Invasion, is a Boston, Massachusetts-based straight edge hardcore punk band. Only one demo was released under the name Invasion before the group was renamed Righteous Jams in 2003, following the addition of Elgin James...

"Rage Of Discipline," Broken Sounds (guitars)

2005- Elgin James, "Tinted Soft Green," Emusic Digital Singles Club (vocals, guitars)

2006- Righteous Jams "Business As Usual," Abacus Recordings (guitars)

Filmography

• Release (1998)
• Live Thee Fourth (2000)
• Boston Beatdown Vol. 2 (2004)
• Dark Planet: Visions of America (2005)
• Enemy (2007)
• Goodnight Moon, THINKFilms, (2007) (writer/director)
• Little Birds (2010)