A

O'HAIR, MADALYN MURRAY 1919-

ATHEIST

The Problems of Atheists

Madalyn Murray O'Hair called herself "the most hated woman in America." Although School Board of Abbington Township v. Schempp is usually cited as the case through which the Supreme Court ruled that public schools may not require Bible reading, the second decision on that issue was a case filed in 1959 by O'Hair and her son, William J. Murray (Murray v. Curlett). The decision was handed down in 1963. As atheists they protested the Baltimore school board's requirement that the public school day begin with prayer or Bible reading. Murray, as she was named then, attracted notoriety by organizing the American Atheist Center (1959), American Atheists, Inc. (1965), and the Society of Separationists (1965). Her American Atheist Radio series was broadcast on over four thousand radio stations. She had a talent for attracting attention as, for example, when she issued statements that she planned to sue to stop governments from giving tax exemptions to places of public worship and other religious organizations. She also announced she would sue to remove the phrase "In God We Trust" from the currency. After being arrested for attacking Baltimore police, she fled to Hawaii and eventually settled in Austin, Texas, where she and her new husband established the American Atheist Association. During the 1960s the American Atheist Press published the first five of O'Hair's more than twenty-five books on the subject of atheism, including Why I Am an Atheist(1965).