The Lord is a black jailbird with the surname, 'Coward'. Think that's nuts, try this: He and his followers just won legal recognition

Kalvin Coward calls himself G0D. And his fellow inmates at a Virginia prison who follow the same teachings - he calls them G0D, too.

Coward, 54, is an adherent of the Nation of G0Ds and Earths, also known as the Five Percenters, and his belief system includes the idea that the black man is G0D and that only five percent of the population know this to be true and can teach it to others.

To Coward, the Nation of G0Ds 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 it.

But last month, after a years-long court battle, a federal judge in Alexandria ruled that Coward and others can observe their four honor days, possess foundational texts and engage in communal worship.

Michael Williams, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, the firm that represented Coward, called the ruling a "landmark" for religious liberty cases.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema wrote in her opinion that the Virginia Department of Corrections' policy violated the inmate's rights under the First Amendment and a federal law that prohibits religious discrimination in prison settings.

"After twenty-one years of tracking Five Percenters, the VDOC has not produced sufficient evidence supporting its position that the gang designation is warranted and furthers a compelling state interest," Brinkema wrote.

The passage of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act in 2000, which includes protections for prisoners, was a "game-changer" for inmates seeking religious rights, said David Fathi, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project.

Since then, prison policies across the country have been challenged and this Virginia case is the latest example, Fathi said.

Lisa Kinney, a Virginia Department of Corrections spokeswoman, declined to speak about the Coward case, saying "a decision regarding appeal has not been made yet."

In court, Coward, who is serving his sentence at Deep Meadow Correctional Center west of Richmond, said he wasn't asking for anything different than the Christians in prison with him: Freedom to worship, practice and teach.

"What a Christian feel for Christianity is what I feel for the NGE, or the Nation, you know? It cleaned me up just as Christianity is supposed to clean the Christian up," Coward said, according to trial transcripts.

It was 1994 when Coward, dressed in clothes similar to that of a baker, rang the bell near the employee entrance of his former job and waited with his back to the door.

The restaurant manager at Piccadilly Cafeteria in Henrico County looked through the peep hole and opened the door.

Coward, pointing a gun at the manager, told him to "back up and get into the store," demanded money and threatened to blow "his brains out," according to court documents.

This robbery led Coward to a 45-year sentence after he was convicted by a jury of armed robbery, abduction and two firearm charges. He maintains his innocence, even while behind bars.

Long before the robbery case, Coward said, he had been an adherent of the Nation of G0Ds and Earths, but he said he gained a deeper understanding in prison.

As he became more devout, though, he was not able to practice fully.

The Nation of G0Ds and Earths was originally classified as a security threat group in 1996, Virginia Department of Corrections employee Christopher Burke, the central region coordinator for the operations and logistics unit, confirmed during a trial in federal court.

There are some "problematic statements" in the group's texts, Brinkema, the federal judge, wrote in her recent opinion, that would lead people to believe it advocates for violence against white people.

That includes language that "the Caucasian is the devil" and "all Muslims will murder the devil, because they know he is a snake and also, if he be allowed to live, he would sting someone else. Each Muslim is required to bring four devils."

But Coward believes the Virginia prisons falsely interpreted the meaning behind this literature.

After exhausting options to file a grievance within the prison system, Coward grabbed lined paper and handwrote his federal complaint in 2010 alleging Virginia violated his religious freedom.

Coward studied in the prison library with other inmates who followed the Nation of G0Ds and Earths. They pored over law books, helping Coward to argue the case by himself for years, including seeing it dismissed three times by a federal judge and restored three times by the appeals court. During his third appeal, Coward received free legal help. That firm stuck with him through a two-day bench trial and the Aug. 28 court win.

In the end, Brinkema wrote in her opinion that there was no evidence Coward should be considered "violent, a racial supremacist, or a threat to prison order and institutional security."

Coward said his family motivated him to keep arguing this case. This victory, he said Thursday, will allow him to share his beliefs with others, free from "stigma" and "equivalent to the mainstream religion."

"Our duty to teach the truth to all the human families of the planet earth, I love doing that," Coward said in an interview by telephone. "It gives me great joy when I can elevate the mind of a younger brother, or a brother in general."

Although Coward testified that followers do not believe all white people are "devils" and that a white person could be a part of the group, Margaret Hoehl O'Shea with the Attorney General's Office said in court that the race-centric language is threatening.

"That is a group of individuals who share a philosophy that they are racially superior and that they are striving to switch the circumstances around so that they become, in fact, the ruling race," O'Shea said, according to trial transcripts.

Coward testified that the four devils referred to in the literature are lust, greed, envy and hate and that is personified as a white man because of slavery and America's general history of white men working to "keep the black man down or keep the black man subjugated."

Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino and a former New York City police officer, said that while the language used can be troubling, that is no reason to disallow a group from practicing.

"We don't base religious protections in the United States on whether or not the particular faith has broad appeal, " Levin said. "As much as I am deeply concerned about aspects of the philosophy, it's their right and certainly it's understandable that such a movement would germinate during a time when we still had laws banning interracial marriage and the Klan burning crosses throughout the south."

The teachings of the Nation of G0Ds and Earths were "an open secret" in hip-hop culture in the late 60s and early 70s, said Felicia Miyakawa, who wrote a book on the Five Percenters and music. Miyakawa "decoded" rap lyrics to show the philosophy behind them.

Some famous artists that are either members or have used the literature or symbols include the Wu-Tang Clan, Lord Jamar, Busta Rhymes and Jay-Z.

Michael Muhammad Knight, who is white, spent years with believers. He wrote two books, multiple articles and strongly disagrees that members are violent.

"If the Five Percenters were anything like the state says they are, I would not be alive and I would never have been able to do the work that I did with them," said Knight, who testified during the case and is an assistant professor of religion and cultural studies at the University of Central Florida.

"People have been fighting this for decades," Knight said. "There is a gathering of momentum as more states recognize the Five Percenters."