Name: Emerson James

I was born Emerson William James. For those who can’t immediately tell, my name is a play on several historically impacting figures. Growing up in the early 1980s, my given name was as strange sounding in the Black community as one of Middle Eastern decent would have been.

Because of my “White boy name” and the fact that I was a short and skinny kid, before I became a short and plump kid, for years I was teased mercilessly by my peers in pre-school who made up hollow monikers like “Emerson Demerson.”

This, however, did not last long.

AKA: Dr. James, E, E. James, E-boogie

Born: October 31st

Height: 5’10

Weight: 190lbs

I slammed into him low, around his waist. 190 solid pounds running fast and hard and with bad intentions.

Eyes: Brown

Profession: Unemployed Criminology Professor

Now that I had received word that my line had been cut and I was literally out of work, I was dizzy with confusion, feeling a sense of animosity toward the very institution that had saved me from my old life.

Home: Born in Chicago but currently lives in NYC

Background:

Emerson James was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. He is the youngest child of Frank and Angela James, and brother to Immanuel and Maya James. At fifteen, he became the shot caller of the Tribe, a subset of the larger Almighty Affiliate Nation (now called Mighty Affiliate Nation) that was, at its core, largely comprised of children like himself—sons of the founding members of the gang. They would become one of the most dangerous cliques on the streets of Chicago, and E. James would become known as one of the most dangerous street gangsters because he was both a thinker and a fighter:  I was never the most physical of my crew, but I was more than capable. My father always claimed my reputation was because I was like him. That it was my planning and caution that made me better than the rest. But those I was once closest to would argue that it was my pension to hit first—fast, hard, and continuously, a trait that was innate—that made me valuable in tight situations.

After he was violated out of the gang, Emerson James left Chicago and started a new life in New York City. Attaining a Ph.D. in Criminology, he was a college professor until he was not reappointed and, subsequently, fired: I had recently been informed that I was being denied tenure and, as a result of an economy that had yet to fully rebound, my line was being cut from the department. Short of the events that led me to wholeheartedly embrace academia as a life path thirteen years ago, this was the most unsettling news I’d received in a long time.
He is in a long-term relationship with Fatima—who he also calls Xena or Z—and they share custody of a dog named God.

Update:

In Legacies, Emerson returns home for a funeral. This is a decision that brings his past and present crashing into each other, resulting in explosive violence and a mysterious plot against his life—and the lives of everyone he knows.  At 10am, I checked my phone messages and my world crumbled and nothing would ever be the same again.