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Madalyn Murray O'Hair (née Mays; April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995) [1] was an American 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.
American Atheists was founded in 1963 by Madalyn Murray O'Hair as the Society of Separationists, after the legal cases Abington School District v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett (1959) were filed.
Melissa Leo as Madalyn Murray O'Hair, an atheist activist; Josh Lucas as David Waters, American Atheists' former manager who masterminds the kidnapping; Michael Chernus as Jon Garth Murray, Madalyn's loyal younger son Devin Taylor Freeman as teenage Jon Garth Murray; Rory Cochrane as Gary Karr, one of the Murray O'Hairs' kidnappers
Madalyn Murray O'Hair: 1919–1995 Atheist activist Founder of American Atheists, campaigner for the separation of church and state: Filed the lawsuit that led the US Supreme Court to ban teacher-led prayer and Bible reading in public schools. [77] Joyce Carol Oates: 1938– Author Author and Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton University.
In 1981, Sherman listened to a radio speech by Madalyn Murray O'Hair, an activist and founder of American Atheists. [4] The speech motivated him to join the organization, and he eventually became its Illinois director and national spokesman. [4]
Variations of this message state that atheists are circulating a petition in support of the ban; that religious people are circulating a petition to oppose the ban; that Madalyn Murray O'Hair is responsible for the ban (O'Hair had no association with RM-2493 and died in 1995); that James Dobson is leading opposition to the ban (Dobson has ...
Jon Garth Murray [a] was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1954, the son of Madalyn Murray O'Hair and Michael Fiorillo, her boyfriend at the time. It is likely that Jon Garth never met his father. In 1960 his mother filed a lawsuit against the Baltimore public school system, naming his older half-brother William J. Murray as plaintiff.
The case had been consolidated with Murray v. Curlett, brought by Madalyn Murray, who in 1965 would marry to become Madalyn Murray O'Hair, and would become the founder of American Atheists. [81] [82] The Schempp case was not the decision that banned prayer in American public schools, which had been rendered in Engel v. Vitale on June 25, 1962.