...(shut your mouth!)
Actually, Earl the Black Pearl was the main character in the book Street Players, written (by convict turned author Donald Goines) at about the same time as Shaft. The 1973 book was recently re-released in a new edition by Kensington Publishing.
With ice in his veins and a stable of women to keep his money rolls thick and plenty, Earl the Black Pearl has every intention of staying at the top of the brutal empire he created. But when someone starts picking off his crew, all hell is about to break loose--because Earl isn't letting anyone threaten what he's worked so hard to build. With the streets about to blow up into a violent free-for-all, Earl knows what he has to do--get the enemy or die trying. . .
If you look at the cover of the 2014 release of the book, you can see that Earl is bad.
Well, actually you can't, because Earl the Black Pearl is a fictional character. So who is on the cover?
[Charles] Christian, a black entrepreneur and Nashville church deacon, took part in a private photography session as a gift to his wife in April 2013....
He was then told by friends and family that his picture was on the cover of Donald Goines' book "Street Players."
Christian has acquired legal representation (Howell O'Rear of McInteer & O'Rear in Nashville) and is suing Kensington Publishing. However, there is no discussion of the contract that Christian signed with the private photographer, and who retained the rights to the pictures.
