Yahweh ben Yahweh (1935-2007)
The man who renamed himself God son of God, was born Hulon Mitchell Jr. The son of a Pentecostal minister was raised in Enid, Oklahoma. Hulon was the first of what would become a family of fifteen children. Mitchell would later say that by the age of three he was aware of his own divinity. He attended segregated schools as a child, and after serving in the US Air Force he earned a degree in psychology from Phillips College in Enid, a then all-black school affiliated with the Disciples of Christ (now Phillips University).
Where and when he developed his radical beliefs, which included God and all of the significant figures of the Bible, including the prophets and patriarchs being black is unclear. For a time he worked in the civil rights movement of the 1960s but grew disillusioned with it, once referring to Martin Luther King as “…that dead dog preacher.” He attended both the University of Oklahoma and Atlanta University, studying law at the former but not completing a degree, and economics at the latter. Over the years he called himself by several religious names, including Brother Love, Father Michel, and Hulah Shah. He was associated with the Nation of Islam in Chicago before moving to Miami in 1976.
There he pronounced himself to be both God and the Son of God, an incarnation of himself as perfection. His followers were given the last name Israel, and he promised them that through his teachings they would learn the true history of the Bible and the black race. They were called Yahweh’s and over the next several years acquired a temple, apartment buildings, a hotel, and numerous cars and trucks. Mitchell acquired several cars of his own, including Rolls-Royces, and a reputation for sexual predation with the women and in some cases underage girls of his following.
Mitchell demanded unflinching loyalty to him as the divine leader of the congregation. He preached hatred of Jews and whites, telling his followers that they were the oppressors of blacks and the true God, himself. Members of the congregation’s inner circle were required to kill a white person as a demonstration of their loyalty and commitment to him, and either an ear or a head was presented as proof. Mitchell and his followers nonetheless earned the praise of the local government, just prior to a federal indictment under RICO led to his arrest and several of his followers.
Mitchell was tried in 1990 under an 18 count indictment which included charges of racketeering, extortion and more than a dozen killings. Convicted largely from testimony of a former Yahweh and professional football player serving time for murder, Mitchell was sentenced to 18 years. In 1992 he was found not guilty on charges of first degree murder. Mitchell served 11 years before being paroled on terms which restricted him from any form of contact with any of his former followers. Those restrictions were lifted shortly before he died in 2007.