Yahweh ben Yahweh (born Hulon Mitchell Jr.; October 27, 1935 – May 7, 2007) was an American religious leader, Black separatist and founder of the Nation of Yahweh, a new religious movement headquartered in Florida that had thousands of Black American devotees at its peak. He preached that Jesus is Black, but white devils are in charge temporarily, and he was accused of teaching hate. Yahweh was indicted on three counts of federal racketeering and extortion charges, of which he was found not guilty. However, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. Early life Yahweh ben Yahweh was born Hulon Mitchell Jr. on October 27, 1935. One of 15 children born to Hulon Mitchell Sr., the minister of the Antioch Church of God in Christ in Enid, Oklahoma, and Pearl O. Mitchell (nee Leatherman), pianist for the same congregation. After leaving Oklahoma, Mitchell joined the military and then attended law school. He moved to Atlanta, where in the 1960s he joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) and took the name Hulon X. After leaving the NOI in the late 1960s, he became a faith healing Christian preacher and named himself Father Mitchell, fashioning himself after Father Divine and Samuel "Father Jehovia" Morris, two African-American ministers and self-proclaimed divine connections to God who were active during the early 20th century. Mitchell arrived in Miami, Florida in 1978, where he gathered members of the city's Black Hebrew Israelite congregations and founded the Nation of Yahweh. Leader of the Nation of Yahweh The Nation of Yahweh set up its headquarters in Liberty City, Florida in 1979. Broadly classified as a branch of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, Mitchell's doctrine emphasized the belief that God and all of the prophets of the Bible were black and that blacks would gain the knowledge of their true history through Mitchell. He also characterized whites and Jews as infidels and oppressors. Mitchell emphasized loyalty to himself as the son of God. Mitchell's business and charity efforts earned him respect in the community. Then-Miami mayor Xavier Suárez declared Yahweh ben Yahweh Day on October 7, 1990, a month before Ben Yahweh's indictment. Crimes and aftermath Although Yahweh ben Yahweh's followers remained devoted to him, he was in trouble with the law by the 1990s. Between 1990 and 2001, he served eleven years of an eighteen-year sentence on a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) conviction after