--- title: "Madalyn Murray O'Hair" description: "Madalyn Murray O'Hair won the 1963 Supreme Court case that banned mandatory prayer in U.S. public schools. She built American Atheists and became 'the most hated woman in America.'" canonical: https://opendoubt.com/people/madalyn-murray-ohair source: html --- # Madalyn Murray O'Hair > Madalyn Murray O'Hair won the 1963 Supreme Court case that banned mandatory prayer in U.S. public schools. She built American Atheists and became 'the most hated woman in America.' Notable figure # Madalyn Murray O’Hair Atheist Activist & Founder, American Atheists · 1919–1995 Madalyn Murray O’Hair was, by her own admission, “the most hated woman in America.” _Life_ magazine gave her the title in 1964, and she wore it for the rest of her life. She earned it the year before, when her lawsuit _Murray v. Curlett_ reached the U.S. Supreme Court and ended mandatory Bible reading and prayer in American public schools. Before O’Hair, organized atheism in the United States was scattered, polite, and largely invisible. After her, it had an address — first her home in Baltimore, then a headquarters in Austin — a membership list, a magazine, a radio show, and a willingness to speak in the language of the religious right’s own confrontational politics. She founded American Atheists in 1963 and ran it as a family business until 1995, when she, her son Jon, and her granddaughter Robin were abducted, murdered, and dismembered by a former employee who had stolen the organization’s money. Her life is a study in what it cost, in the 20th century, to be openly atheist in America. She was sued, sued back, fired from jobs, evicted from apartments, sent hate mail by the sackful, attacked physically, and finally killed for her work. She is also the reason organized atheism in the United States exists as a legal and political force at all. Core positions Total separation of church and state O'Hair's central legal and political conviction was that any government endorsement of religion — however small, however traditional — was a violation of the First Amendment. She rejected the idea that prayer, religious displays, or tax exemptions for churches were neutral or harmless. Atheism as a positive worldview She argued that atheism was not merely an absence — it was a commitment to materialism, to evidence, and to the proposition that human beings must solve their own problems without recourse to the supernatural. Public confrontation, not quiet dissent O'Hair believed atheists had been bullied into silence by social pressure. Her style was deliberately combative — she gave the religious right a face to oppose, and she gave previously isolated atheists a movement to join. Tax the churches One of her enduring policy demands was the removal of tax-exempt status from religious institutions. She argued that subsidizing churches forced taxpayers — including atheists — to underwrite religion against their will. > An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty banished, war eliminated. ## Murray v. Curlett (1963) In 1960, O’Hair’s son William, then a high-school student in Baltimore, was required to participate in daily Bible reading and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. O’Hair sued. The case, consolidated with _Abington School District v. Schempp_, reached the Supreme Court, which ruled 8–1 that government-sponsored Bible reading in public schools violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It is one of the most consequential church-and-state rulings in American history. It also ensured that for the next half-century, O’Hair was treated by much of the country as the woman personally responsible for “taking God out of the schools.” ## Building American Atheists O’Hair founded American Atheists in 1963 and built it into the most visible secular advocacy group of its era. The organization filed lawsuits against tax exemptions for churches, religious mottos on currency, prayer at public events, and government-sponsored Christmas displays. She hosted a syndicated radio show and a public-access TV program, debated clergy on national television, and tested the limits of what an unapologetic atheist could say in a country that still treated the label as a near-criminal accusation. Her legacy is contested even within the secular movement — she was famously combative, ran the organization autocratically, and feuded with nearly every other freethought leader of her era. But the institutional infrastructure she built outlived her, and the precedents she won are still the legal floor under American secularism. ## Best quotes > “An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said.” > “I will not have my child used as a pawn for the religious propaganda of any state.” > “Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea.” > “We find the Bible to be nauseating, historically inaccurate, replete with the ravings of madmen.” > “No god ever gave any man anything, nor ever answered any prayer at any time — nor ever will.” ## Where to learn more Madalyn Murray O’Hair [American Atheists](https://www.atheists.org/)[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O%27Hair)[Murray v. Curlett (1963)](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/374/203/) Related thinkers [ Women & Atheism Female voices in freethought ](/women-and-atheism)[ Dan Barker FFRF Co-President ](/people/dan-barker)[ Greta Christina Atheist Feminist Writer ](/people/greta-christina) Continue exploring [ Church and state The constitutional principle O'Hair spent her life enforcing in U.S. courts. ](/church-and-state)[ Women and atheism The female freethinkers who shaped the secular movement. ](/women-and-atheism)[ Secularism The broader project O'Hair forced into the mainstream. ](/secularism)[ What is atheism? A clear introduction to what atheism actually means. ](/atheism)[ Famous atheists More notable nonbelievers throughout history. ](/famous-atheists) ## Sources cited - https://www.atheists.org/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O%27Hair - https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/374/203/ --- _Canonical HTML version: https://opendoubt.com/people/madalyn-murray-ohair_