Madalyn Murray O’Hair (1919–1995) was an activist supporting atheism and separation of church and state. In 1963, she founded American Atheists and served as its president until 1986, after which her son Jon Garth Murray succeeded her. She created the first issues of American Atheist Magazine and identified as a “militant feminist”.
O’Hair is best known for the Murray v. Curlett lawsuit, which challenged the policy of mandatory prayers and Bible reading in Baltimore public schools, in which she named her first son William J. Murray as plaintiff. Consolidated with Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), it was heard by the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that officially sanctioned mandatory Bible-reading in American public schools was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court had prohibited officially sponsored prayer in schools in Engel v. Vitale (1962) on similar grounds. After she founded the American Atheists and won Murray v. Curlett, she achieved attention to the extent that in 1964, Life magazine referred to her as “the most hated woman in America”. Through American Atheists, O’Hair filed numerous other suits on issues of separation of church and state.
Frank Zindler, longtime friend of Madalyn and editor of the American Atheist Magazine, wrote that even the US Supreme Court disliked Madalyn. Even though Madalyn’s prayer case had been filed first and the arguments heard first, the court combined it with the later Abington School District v. Schempp and gave the decision that name to spite her.
O’Hair and her family lived in Rossford, Ohio in the 1930s and Madalyn graduated from Rossford High School in 1936.
William J. Murray, her son, the plaintiff in the court case, eventually became a Baptist minister who regularly denounced his mother for her atheism.
O’Hair, her other son Jon Garth Murray, and her granddaughter Robin Murray O’Hair disappeared from their home and office in August 1995. At the time some people assumed they stole money from American Atheists and left the country. The truth is the family was kidnapped and murdered and their bodies weren’t found until 2001. The Austin Texas police department was criticized for not taking the family’s disappearance seriously even after her estranged son, William, asked them to investigate.
O’Hair served on the American Humanist Association Board for a short time in the early 1970s. She quit because she was the only woman on the board and complained about her treatment by the men on the board.
Your petitioners are Atheists and they define their lifestyle as follows. An Atheists loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An Atheist thinks that heaven is something for which we should work for now — here on earth- for all men together to enjoy.
An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death.
MURRAY v. CURLETT, Petition for Relief, 1959
An Atheist knows that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist knows that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated
