Kalvin Coward calls himself God. And his fellow inmates at a Virginia prison who follow the same teachings — he calls them God, too.
Coward, 54, is an adherent of the Nation of Gods and Earths, also known as the Five Percenters, and his belief system includes the idea that the black man is God and that only 5 percent of the population knows this to be true and can teach it to others.
To Coward, the Nation of Gods and Earths, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam, is a positive philosophy and the focal point of his life. In the view of Virginia prisons, though, it's a gang whose members believe they are “racially superior.” Until recently, prison officials did not allow devotees to discuss their beliefs publicly or read literature about them.
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