Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1983, in front of the Ingersoll statue in Glen Oak Park, Peoria.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1983, in front of the Ingersoll statue in Glen Oak Park, Peoria.
Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The twentieth century

Madalyn Murray O'Hair

1919–1995
Atheist

Madalyn Murray O'Hair was baptised a Presbyterian. In her own later telling she dated her unbelief to a weekend reading of the Bible in grade school. She declared it in 1960 by petitioning Baltimore's schools with her son, and won the 1963 Supreme Court case against required Bible reading. She spent the rest of her life in confrontation as "the Atheist", never revising her unbelief but paying for it with flight, an estranged son and, in the end, a murder that had nothing to do with it.

The belief timeline

19191995Faith1923Doubtc. 1931-32Declaration1960Confrontation1963-1970Cost1964-1995
  1. Faith (1923) — Baptized in the Presbyterian church at four; a childhood faith in any inward sense is not shown, and she later claimed atheism from about six (see Disputed points) [2][62]
  2. Doubt (c. 1931-32) — At twelve or thirteen she reads the Bible through in a weekend, is "appalled", and refuses church after her mother says "That's not in my Bible!" (Le Beau, quoting her) [Le Beau also reports she discounted a sudden break] [4][61][63]
  3. Declaration (1960) — She and her son file the Baltimore petition, calling their beliefs atheistic; Supreme Court names them "professed atheists" in 1963 [12][14][24]
  4. Confrontation (1963-1970) — Wins at the Supreme Court, founds American Atheists, sues NASA over Apollo 8 [24][43][45]
  5. Cost (1964-1995) — Flight from Baltimore, estrangement from her son, murder [36][53][55]
Notes to the timeline (13)
  1. [2] Her parents baptized her in the Presbyterian church in 1923, at four; her father was Presbyterian, her mother Lutheran but attended a Presbyterian church — Bryan F. Le Beau, The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair (New York University Press, 2003). Copyrighted. archive.org isbn_9780814751718 (lending). SECOND PASS: the full text and page images return 401/403 to the tool, so I read only the sentences that the Internet Archive's full-text-search service returns around exact phrases (about 100 characters each), saved in research/notes/fts-snippets.txt. Page numbers cannot be read; where a running head showed ("22 OUT OF OBSCURITY") the page is inferred, ch. 1 (snippet).
  2. [62] Her son writes that "later she would claim to have been an atheist from about age six" and that she listed her goal as serving God for the betterment of man, i.e. her accounts of when she stopped believing varied — William J. Murray, My Life Without God (1982; archive.org copies mylifewithoutgod00murr is the 1992 Harvest House edition, mylifewithoutgod0000murr the 2012 edition). Copyrighted; text locked; read as search snippets only. The author is her son and a Christian apologist: a partisan witness, 1992 ed. ch. 1 (snippet).
  3. [4] At twelve or thirteen, in the sixth grade and living in Akron, Ohio, she read the Bible through in one weekend and found it "a perfectly bizarre book"; she was "completely appalled, totally turned off, [and] filled with repugnance"; when she read the offending passages to her parents her mother "drew herself up" and said "That's not in my Bible!"; she says she never accepted the Bible after that day and refused to go to church. Her age is Le Beau's gloss; in her own 1986 words she read it "one weekend when I was in grade school" — Beau, Atheist, pp. 21-22 (snippets; page inferred from the running head); Jon Garth Murray and Madalyn O'Hair, All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists with All the Answers, 2nd ed. (American Atheist Press, Austin, 1986), archive.org allquestionsyoue0000murr (lending, snippets). Her own spoken answers in a Q&A format, (her 1986 answer); Lawrence Wright, Saints and Sinners (Knopf, 1993), archive.org saintssinnerswal00wrig_0 (lending, snippets): a journalist's chapter on her; gives sources for her Bible story to Murray and O'Hair, op. cit, Saints and Sinners (snippets, quoting Murray and O'Hair, op. cit.); Ted Dracos, Ungodly (Free Press, 2003). Copyrighted. archive.org ungodly00tedd and ungodly00tedd_0 (lending; text locked). Read as search snippets only, as for LeBeau. Dracos is a sensational biography; weigh accordingly, ("cover to cover one weekend, just as if it were a novel").
  4. [61] In her own 1986 words she read the Bible from cover to cover one weekend in grade school; a journalist (Wright) and Dracos both repeat the story and Wright cites Murray and O'Hair, op. cit., for it, so the root source is her own telling, decades later — Murray, All the Questions You Ever…, (snippet); Wright, Saints and Sinners, (snippet); Dracos, Ungodly, (snippet).
  5. [63] Le Beau notes that elsewhere she "discounted the idea of her immediate or sudden rejection of religion, preferring to see it as" something slower; the end of the sentence was not returned — Beau, Atheist, p. 22 (snippet, page inferred).
  6. [12] The petitioners were William J. Murray III and Madalyn E. Murray, who sought a writ of mandamus to make the board rescind the rule; the Supreme Court calls both "professed atheists" — Murray v. Curlett, 228 Md. 239, 179 A.2d 698 (1962). Text from static.case.law (research/texts/murray-md-1962.txt); the text carries no page numbers, so pin cites to the printed reporter are still to be added. Public domain; Abington School District v. Schempp; Murray v. Curlett, 374 U.S. 203 (1963). Page-numbered text from the Library of Congress U.S. Reports PDF (tile.loc.gov usrep374203), saved as research/texts/schempp-usrep.txt with [[374 U.S. p.N]] markers; second copy from static.case.law (schempp.txt). Opinion of the Court pp. 205-227 (Clark), Douglas 227, Brennan 230, Goldberg 305, Stewart 308-320. Public domain, p. 211.
  7. [14] The petition argued that the rule placed "a premium on belief as against non-belief", subjected conscience to the majority, and rendered their beliefs "sinister, alien and suspect" (Q1) — Schempp, p. 212; MdCt62.
  8. [24] Decided 17 June 1963: no state law or school board may require Bible passages to be read or the Lord's Prayer recited at the start of the school day, even if students may be excused; the Maryland judgment was reversed and remanded — Schempp, pp. 203, 205, 227.
  9. [43] Le Beau dates the founding of the first form of American Atheists, the Maryland Committee for State/Church Separation, to 1 July 1963; her leadership to 1986 and Jon Garth's succession are still from Wikipedia only — Beau, Atheist, (snippet); Wikipedia map for 1986. Not verified.
  10. [45] In O'Hair v. Paine she, Richard F. O'Hair and the Society of Separationists sued NASA's administrator over religious ceremonies during Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, asking for an injunction — O'Hair v. Paine, 312 F. Supp. 434 (W.D. Tex. 1969). static.case.law.
  11. [36] The Baltimore State's Attorney charged Murray, her son William and her mother Mona Mays with assaulting police in the Murray home on 20 June 1964 — Same item, part 2; includes a Congressional Record insert, PDF p. 3 (AP, 30 June 1964, as clipped). Reported at second hand; the original has not been seen.
  12. [53] William became a Christian in 1980 (year from Wikipedia and the book's date; not seen in a snippet) and published My Life Without God (1982); she repudiated him in the press as in claim 65 — Murray, My Life Without God, (published 1982 per the 1992 reissue); Dracos, Ungodly, (snippets); Baptist ministry not seen.
  13. [55] They were kidnapped, made to hand over gold coins and money, and killed by David Waters and Gary Karr; Danny Fry was killed afterwards (handle plainly and briefly) — NYT 16 Mar 2001; Dallas Observer (via Wikipedia map).

Freedom from Religion

On 17 June 1963 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, eight justices to one, that no state or school board could require the Bible to be read or the Lord's Prayer recited at the start of the school day, even if pupils who objected could be excused. The decision joined two cases. One came from a Unitarian family in Pennsylvania. The other came from Baltimore, where a mother and her fourteen-year-old son had petitioned the city's school board three years earlier. The Court described the Baltimore petitioners as "professed atheists."1234

The mother was Madalyn Murray, later Madalyn Murray O'Hair, and for the next thirty years she was the best-known atheist in America. This chapter asks where her unbelief came from, by her own account and by others', and what it cost her.

The first page of the Supreme Court's opinion in Abington School District v. Schempp, decided with Murray v. Curlett on 17 June 1963.
The first page of the Supreme Court's opinion in Abington School District v. Schempp, decided with Murray v. Curlett on 17 June 1963.United States Reports, vol. 374, Library of Congress (tile.loc.gov), federal court record

A weekend with the Bible

She was born Madalyn Mays in the Beechview district of Pittsburgh on 13 April 1919, the second child of John Irwin Mays and Lena Scholle Mays.5 Her father was a Presbyterian and her mother a Lutheran who went to a Presbyterian church, and in 1923, at four, Madalyn was baptised a Presbyterian. Her biographer Bryan Le Beau records the baptism, but no source read for this chapter shows a childhood faith of her own beyond it.6 On the belief timeline, that baptism is where her faith is marked.

The story of how she stopped believing is her own, told decades later. In her account, while the family was living in Akron, Ohio, she read the whole Bible over one weekend, the way one reads a novel, and found it bizarre and repugnant. When she read the worst passages aloud to her parents, her mother drew herself up and said they were not in her Bible. Madalyn said she never accepted the Bible after that day and refused to go to church. Le Beau puts her age at twelve or thirteen; in her own book of 1986 she said only that it happened in grade school.78

Other accounts are less tidy. Her son William later wrote that she would claim to have been an atheist from about the age of six, and that as a teenager she became somewhat religious, perhaps under the influence of friends. Her high-school yearbook gave her ambition as serving God for the betterment of man. Le Beau notes that she herself sometimes played down the idea of a sudden break.9101112 Accounts differ, then, and the date where her timeline places her doubt, about 1931–32, rests on her own retelling. Her service in the Women's Army Corps in the Second World War and her life before Baltimore lie outside what the lawful sources could confirm, and this chapter passes over them.13

Baltimore, 1960

In 1905 the Baltimore school board had ruled that each school day should open with a chapter of the Bible, read without comment, or the Lord's Prayer, or both.1415 In 1960, by the account in her son's memoir, she took William to Woodbourne Junior High School and was angered by the morning exercises.16 After a protest by the Murrays and an opinion from the Maryland Attorney General, the board amended its rule in November 1960 so that a child could be excused at a parent's written request.17 That was not enough for them. Mother and son petitioned the courts to make the board drop the rule altogether, and the petition described their beliefs as atheistic.1

Their argument, as the Supreme Court later quoted it, was that the rule threatened their religious liberty "by placing a premium on belief as against non-belief" and rendered "sinister, alien and suspect the beliefs and ideals of your Petitioners."1819 On her timeline, the 1960 petition is where she declares her unbelief.

Page 212 of the opinion, quoting the Murrays' petition.
Page 212 of the opinion, quoting the Murrays' petition.United States Reports, vol. 374, Library of Congress (tile.loc.gov), federal court record

The Baltimore court dismissed the petition without hearing evidence, and in April 1962 Maryland's highest court upheld the dismissal by four votes to three. For the majority, Judge Hornby wrote: "We think that neither constitutional provision is violated, for, as we see it, neither the First nor the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to stifle all rapport between religion and government."20212223 Their lawyer, Leonard Kerpelman, took the case to Washington.24

The Supreme Court

He argued it on 27 February 1963. Maryland's Attorney General argued against him, and the attorneys general of eighteen other states joined Maryland's brief.2526 In June, Justice Tom Clark wrote for the Court that the exercises were religious ceremonies required by the state, that the option of being excused was no defence, and that the state must remain neutral. He set out a test that lasted for decades: a law must have a secular purpose and a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion. He was careful to add that the decision did not forbid the study of the Bible or of religion, "when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education," and that the state could not establish a "religion of secularism" hostile to faith either.2272829303132

Justice Tom C. Clark, who wrote the Court's opinion.
Justice Tom C. Clark, who wrote the Court's opinion.Supreme Court of the United States, via Wikimedia Commons

Justice William Brennan, concurring, wrote that excusal put children in "a cruel dilemma," since even devout children would rather join in than risk being labelled atheists.3334 The one dissenter, Justice Potter Stewart, gave the other side its strongest form. Neutrality, he wrote, meant "the extension of evenhanded treatment to all who believe, doubt, or disbelieve," and forbidding the exercises could be seen "not as the realization of state neutrality, but rather as the establishment of a religion of secularism." He would have sent the cases back for evidence, since the Baltimore case had been decided without any.353637

The Warren Court, which decided the case.
The Warren Court, which decided the case.Official photograph, Supreme Court of the United States, via Wikimedia Commons

The ruling is often remembered as the case that took prayer out of American schools. It was not quite that. The Court had already struck down a state-written prayer in Engel v. Vitale the year before, and Schempp struck down required Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's Prayer, not private prayer.38 Accounts in the press and in Congress at the time did not draw that distinction.

Confrontation

The victory made her famous and hated. In June 1964, after a fight with police at the family's Baltimore home, she, her son William and her mother were charged with assault, and the family fled to Honolulu. From there she told a reporter that her body was a testimonial to police brutality; Maryland's Attorney General said she was a publicity hound who was not worth extraditing.3940414243 In Congress, Representative Frank Becker of New York, sponsor of an amendment to restore school prayer, entered into the record an article attacking her, praising it as "a wonderful expression by a very good lady."4445

The Baltimore Sun of 28 June 1964 reporting the Attorney General's refusal to pursue her, as clipped in her FBI file.
The Baltimore Sun of 28 June 1964 reporting the Attorney General's refusal to pursue her, as clipped in her FBI file.FBI file on Madalyn Murray O'Hair (105-HQ-90854), FOIA release, via Internet Archive item MadalynMurrayOHair

By October 1965 she was in Austin, Texas, fighting extradition, and had married Richard O'Hair.46 She campaigned to tax church property, and in 1966 the Washington Post reported her goal as "freedom from religion as well as freedom of religion." Unexpectedly, she also said she wanted all religion taught compulsorily in schools from the fifth grade to the twelfth, as history, literature and "the psychopathology of religion."47484950 In 1963 she had founded the organisation that became American Atheists.51

The Washington Post report of April 1966 on her campaign to tax the churches, from her FBI file.
The Washington Post report of April 1966 on her campaign to tax the churches, from her FBI file.FBI file on Madalyn Murray O'Hair (105-HQ-90854), FOIA release, via Internet Archive item MadalynMurrayOHair

On Christmas Eve 1968 the crew of Apollo 8, orbiting the moon, read the first verses of Genesis to the world. O'Hair sued NASA's administrator over this and over religious ceremonies on Apollo 11. A federal judge in Texas dismissed the suit in December 1969, observing that her complaint was not that her freedom of religion had been abridged but her freedom from religion; the appeals court called one of her arguments, that the judicial oath "So help me God" shut atheists out of the judiciary, close to absurd.5253545556 Ordinary believers answered her with letter campaigns; one organiser in Pampa, Texas, said she had overstepped her bounds in telling Americans where and when they could pray.5758 These years of courtroom confrontation, from 1963 to 1970, get a mark of their own on her timeline.

Earthrise, photographed from Apollo 8 on 24 December 1968, the day the crew read from Genesis.
Earthrise, photographed from Apollo 8 on 24 December 1968, the day the crew read from Genesis.NASA (as08-14-2383), NASA Image and Video Library

The cost

She never revised her unbelief. In 1986 she wrote that the difference between an atheist and an agnostic was courage, and she called herself not just an atheist but the Atheist. Asked what she wanted on her tombstone, she answered: woman, atheist, anarchist.5960 The cost was personal. In 1980 her son William, the boy in whose name the Baltimore case had been brought, became a Christian, and later wrote against her. She repudiated him in public, entirely and for all time.6162

Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1983.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1983.Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In August 1995 she, her younger son Jon Garth Murray and her granddaughter Robin disappeared from Austin. They had been kidnapped and robbed, and were murdered that autumn by a former employee of American Atheists, David Waters, and an accomplice, Gary Karr; their remains were found in Texas only in January 2001.63646566 As the case was reported, the motive was money, not her beliefs.

Her timeline ends not with a revision but with that cost: an estranged son, years of flight and litigation, and a violent death. What she left was a Supreme Court ruling on religion in public schools that is still cited, whatever one thinks of the woman who brought it.

Clarence Darrow, who argued about religion and the public schools in a Tennessee courtroom thirty-eight years before her case reached Washington, has his own chapter in this book.

Footnotes

  1. Murray v. Curlett, 228 Md. 239, 179 A.2d 698 (1962). Text from static.case.law (research/texts/murray-md-1962.txt); the text carries no page numbers, so pin cites to the printed reporter are still to be added. Public domain; Abington School District v. Schempp; Murray v. Curlett, 374 U.S. 203 (1963). Page-numbered text from the Library of Congress U.S. Reports PDF (tile.loc.gov usrep374203), saved as research/texts/schempp-usrep.txt with [[374 U.S. p.N]] markers; second copy from static.case.law (schempp.txt). Opinion of the Court pp. 205-227 (Clark), Douglas 227, Brennan 230, Goldberg 305, Stewart 308-320. Public domain, p. 211. ↩ ↩2

  2. Schempp, pp. 203, 205, 227. ↩ ↩2

  3. Schempp, pp. 227, 230, 305, 308. ↩

  4. Schempp, pp. 206, 208. ↩

  5. Bryan F. Le Beau, The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair (New York University Press, 2003). Copyrighted. archive.org isbn_9780814751718 (lending). SECOND PASS: the full text and page images return 401/403 to the tool, so I read only the sentences that the Internet Archive's full-text-search service returns around exact phrases (about 100 characters each), saved in research/notes/fts-snippets.txt. Page numbers cannot be read; where a running head showed ("22 OUT OF OBSCURITY") the page is inferred, ch. 1 (snippet, page not read); Orr, Pittsburgh Born, Pittsburgh Bred (snippet: born Palm Sunday); William J. Murray, My Life Without God (1982; archive.org copies mylifewithoutgod00murr is the 1992 Harvest House edition, mylifewithoutgod0000murr the 2012 edition). Copyrighted; text locked; read as search snippets only. The author is her son and a Christian apologist: a partisan witness; Ted Dracos, Ungodly (Free Press, 2003). Copyrighted. archive.org ungodly00tedd and ungodly00tedd_0 (lending; text locked). Read as search snippets only, as for LeBeau. Dracos is a sensational biography; weigh accordingly. Accounts differ; see the disputed points. ↩

  6. Beau, Atheist, ch. 1 (snippet). ↩

  7. Beau, Atheist, pp. 21-22 (snippets; page inferred from the running head); Jon Garth Murray and Madalyn O'Hair, All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists with All the Answers, 2nd ed. (American Atheist Press, Austin, 1986), archive.org allquestionsyoue0000murr (lending, snippets). Her own spoken answers in a Q&A format, (her 1986 answer); Lawrence Wright, Saints and Sinners (Knopf, 1993), archive.org saintssinnerswal00wrig_0 (lending, snippets): a journalist's chapter on her; gives sources for her Bible story to Murray and O'Hair, op. cit, Saints and Sinners (snippets, quoting Murray and O'Hair, op. cit.); Dracos, Ungodly, ("cover to cover one weekend, just as if it were a novel"). ↩

  8. Murray, All the Questions You Ever…, (snippet); Wright, Saints and Sinners, (snippet); Dracos, Ungodly, (snippet). ↩

  9. Orr, Pittsburgh Born (snippet); Murray, My Life Without God, (snippet); year unverified. Reported at second hand; the original has not been seen. ↩

  10. Murray, My Life Without God, 1992 ed. ch. 1 (snippet). ↩

  11. Beau, Atheist, p. 22 (snippet, page inferred). ↩

  12. Murray, My Life Without God, 2012 ed. (snippet); 1992 ed. reads "somewhat religious". ↩

  13. Beau, Atheist, (via Wikipedia map); Army records not seen. Not verified. ↩

  14. Schempp, p. 211; MdCt62. ↩

  15. MdCt62, (rule text). ↩

  16. Murray, My Life Without God, pp. 47-51 (via Wikipedia map). ↩

  17. MdCt62; Schempp, p. 211. ↩

  18. Schempp, p. 212; MdCt62. ↩

  19. Murray petition, as quoted by the Court: Schempp, 374 U.S. p. 212. ↩

  20. MdCt62; Schempp, pp. 212, 319. ↩

  21. MdCt62; Schempp, p. 212. ↩

  22. MdCt62. ↩

  23. Judge Hornby for the four-judge Maryland majority, 1962: MdCt62. ↩

  24. MdCt62; Schempp, p. 203. ↩

  25. Schempp, p. 203. ↩

  26. Schempp, pp. 203-204. ↩

  27. Schempp, pp. 223-226. ↩

  28. Schempp, p. 222. ↩

  29. Schempp, p. 225. ↩

  30. Justice Clark for the Court: Schempp, p. 222. ↩

  31. Justice Clark for the Court: Schempp, p. 225. ↩

  32. Justice Clark for the Court: Schempp, p. 225. ↩

  33. Schempp, pp. 289-290. ↩

  34. Justice Brennan, concurring: Schempp, pp. 289-290. ↩

  35. Schempp, pp. 308, 316-320. ↩

  36. Justice Potter Stewart, the sole dissenter in Schempp, writing for a record he thought too thin: Schempp, p. 317. ↩

  37. Justice Stewart, dissenting: Schempp, p. 313. ↩

  38. MdCt62; Schempp, p. 222. ↩

  39. Same item, part 2; includes a Congressional Record insert, PDF p. 3 (AP, 30 June 1964, as clipped). ↩

  40. FBI-2, PDF pp. 1, 3 (AP and Sun, 30 June-2 July 1964). ↩

  41. FBI-2, PDF p. 4 (Sun, 28 June 1964). ↩

  42. FBI-2, PDF p. 4 (Sun, 28 June 1964). ↩

  43. Thomas B. Finan, Maryland Attorney General, on her return from Hawaii in 1964: Baltimore Sun, 28 June 1964, FBI-2 PDF p. 4. ↩

  44. Congressional Record, 88th Congress, 2d Session, Extension of Remarks of Hon. Frank J. Becker, 2 July 1964 ("Women of America, for God's Sake, Awake" by Mrs. Phil Regan), as clipped at FBI-2 PDF pp. 39-40 (stamped 78-79). The clipping does not show the Record's page number, via FBI-2 PDF pp. 39-40. ↩

  45. Rep. Frank J. Becker of New York, introducing a constituent-style article against the ruling: CR-Becker, 2 July 1964 (FBI-2 PDF p. 39). ↩

  46. FBI file "Madalyn Murray O'Hair", part 1 (archive.org item MadalynMurrayOHair, "Madalyn Murray OHair 01"; public domain mark). Mostly clippings; OCR text in research/texts/fbi-ohair-01.txt; clean passages in fbi-ohair-handread.txt, (UPI, Austin, 23 Oct 1965; Sun, 20 Oct 1965, as clipped; OCR only, check scan). ↩

  47. file, "Madalyn Murray O'Hair", PDF p. 2 (Peter Winterble, stamped April 1966). ↩

  48. Madalyn Murray O'Hair: Washington Post, Winterble, April 1966, FBI-1 PDF p. 2. ↩

  49. Madalyn Murray O'Hair: Washington Post, April 1966, FBI-1 PDF p. 2. ↩

  50. Madalyn Murray O'Hair: Washington Post, April 1966, FBI-1 PDF p. 2. ↩

  51. Beau, Atheist, (snippet); Wikipedia map for 1986. ↩

  52. O'Hair v. Paine, 312 F. Supp. 434 (W.D. Tex. 1969). static.case.law. ↩

  53. Paine-D. ↩

  54. O'Hair v. Paine, 432 F.2d 66 (5th Cir. 1970). static.case.law. ↩

  55. Judge Roberts: O'Hair v. Paine, 312 F. Supp. 434 (1969). ↩

  56. Fifth Circuit, per curiam: O'Hair v. Paine, 432 F.2d 66 (1970). ↩

  57. FBI-2, PDF pp. 35-36 (UPI clipping; flyer). ↩

  58. Gene Schneider, Pampa Jaycees, organizer of a letter campaign about the Apollo 8 reading: UPI clipping, FBI-2 PDF p. 35. ↩

  59. Madalyn Murray O'Hair, An Atheist Speaks (American Atheist Press, 1986), archive.org atheistspeaksame0000mada (lending, snippets): her radio talks, (snippet); Beau, Atheist, front matter and Joshi ch. 10 epigraph (snippets). ↩

  60. Beau, Atheist, (snippet). ↩

  61. Murray, My Life Without God, (published 1982 per the 1992 reissue); Dracos, Ungodly, (snippets); Baptist ministry not seen. ↩

  62. Dracos, Ungodly, (snippets; page not read; Wikipedia gave p. 138). ↩

  63. Time 10 Feb 1997; Austin Chronicle (via Wikipedia map). ↩

  64. NYT 16 Mar 2001; Dallas Observer (via Wikipedia map). ↩

  65. Express-News 30 Jan and 31 Mar 2001 (via Wikipedia map). ↩

  66. Murray, My Life Without God, 2012 ed. (snippet); S. T. Joshi, The Unbelievers: The Evolution of Modern Atheism (Prometheus, 2011), ch. 10 "Madalyn Murray O'Hair: Prayer out of the Schools"; archive.org unbelieversevolu0000josh (lending, snippets), ch. 10 (snippet). ↩

Sources cited in the notes: Murray v. Curlett, 228 Md. 239, 179 A.2d 698 (1962). Text from static.case.law (research/texts/murray-md-1962.txt); the text carries no page numbers, so pin cites to the printed reporter are still to be added. Public domain.; Abington School District v. Schempp; Murray v. Curlett, 374 U.S. 203 (1963). Page-numbered text from the Library of Congress U.S. Reports PDF (tile.loc.gov usrep374203), saved as research/texts/schempp-usrep.txt with [[374 U.S. p.N]] markers; second copy from static.case.law (schempp.txt). Opinion of the Court pp. 205-227 (Clark), Douglas 227, Brennan 230, Goldberg 305, Stewart 308-320. Public domain.; Bryan F. Le Beau, The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair (New York University Press, 2003). Copyrighted. archive.org isbn_9780814751718 (lending). SECOND PASS: the full text and page images return 401/403 to the tool, so I read only the sentences that the Internet Archive's full-text-search service returns around exact phrases (about 100 characters each), saved in research/notes/fts-snippets.txt. Page numbers cannot be read; where a running head showed ("22 OUT OF OBSCURITY") the page is inferred.; William J. Murray, My Life Without God (1982; archive.org copies mylifewithoutgod00murr is the 1992 Harvest House edition, mylifewithoutgod0000murr the 2012 edition). Copyrighted; text locked; read as search snippets only. The author is her son and a Christian apologist: a partisan witness.; Ted Dracos, Ungodly (Free Press, 2003). Copyrighted. archive.org ungodly00tedd and ungodly00tedd_0 (lending; text locked). Read as search snippets only, as for LeBeau. Dracos is a sensational biography; weigh accordingly.; Jon Garth Murray and Madalyn O'Hair, All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists with All the Answers, 2nd ed. (American Atheist Press, Austin, 1986), archive.org allquestionsyoue0000murr (lending, snippets). Her own spoken answers in a Q&A format.; Lawrence Wright, Saints and Sinners (Knopf, 1993), archive.org saintssinnerswal00wrig_0 (lending, snippets): a journalist's chapter on her; gives sources for her Bible story to Murray and O'Hair, op. cit.; Same item, part 2; includes a Congressional Record insert.; Congressional Record, 88th Congress, 2d Session, Extension of Remarks of Hon. Frank J. Becker, 2 July 1964 ("Women of America, for God's Sake, Awake" by Mrs. Phil Regan), as clipped at FBI-2 PDF pp. 39-40 (stamped 78-79). The clipping does not show the Record's page number.; FBI file "Madalyn Murray O'Hair", part 1 (archive.org item MadalynMurrayOHair, "Madalyn Murray OHair 01"; public domain mark). Mostly clippings; OCR text in research/texts/fbi-ohair-01.txt; clean passages in fbi-ohair-handread.txt.; O'Hair v. Paine, 312 F. Supp. 434 (W.D. Tex. 1969). static.case.law.; O'Hair v. Paine, 432 F.2d 66 (5th Cir. 1970). static.case.law.; Madalyn Murray O'Hair, An Atheist Speaks (American Atheist Press, 1986), archive.org atheistspeaksame0000mada (lending, snippets): her radio talks.; S. T. Joshi, The Unbelievers: The Evolution of Modern Atheism (Prometheus, 2011), ch. 10 "Madalyn Murray O'Hair: Prayer out of the Schools"; archive.org unbelieversevolu0000josh (lending, snippets).

In their own words

it threatens their religious liberty by placing a premium on belief as against non-belief and subjects their freedom of conscience to the rule of the majority; it pronounces belief in God as the source of all moral and spiritual values, equating these values with religious values, and thereby renders sinister, alien and suspect the beliefs and ideals of your Petitioners, promoting doubt and question of their morality, good citizenship and good faith.

Murray petition, as quoted by the Court · Schempp 374 U.S. p. 212

to lose caste with his fellows, to be regarded with aversion, and to be subjected to reproach and insult

Murray petition, as quoted in the Maryland dissent · MdCt62 (Brune, C.J., dissenting); no page numbers in the text

My body is a testimonial to police brutality

Madalyn Murray, to a reporter by telephone from Honolulu · Baltimore Sun, 28 June 1964, FBI-2 PDF p. 4

basic human freedoms that should be guaranteed to any human being — freedom from religion as well as freedom of religion

Madalyn Murray O'Hair · Washington Post, Winterble, April 1966, FBI-1 PDF p. 2

I would like for all religion to be compulsory study in schools, for children from the 5th to the 12th grades.

Madalyn Murray O'Hair · Washington Post, April 1966, FBI-1 PDF p. 2

history, literature and the psychopathology of religion

Madalyn Murray O'Hair · Washington Post, April 1966, FBI-1 PDF p. 2

Now the churches have told us a million times over and so has the federal government that atheism is a religion so we're going to accept this.

Madalyn Murray O'Hair · AP, Austin, undated, FBI-2 PDF p. 37

If I can't come through this case the same offensive, unlovable, bullheaded, defiant, aggressive slob (she said this, I didn't) that I was when I started it, then I'll give up now. My own identity is more important to me.

Madalyn Murray, as quoted by Mrs. Phil Regan from "an interview given to the Realist" · CR-Becker, 2 July 1964 (FBI-2 PDF p. 40)

what are the purpose and the primary effect of the enactment? If either is the advancement or inhibition of religion then the enactment exceeds the scope of legislative power as circumscribed by the Constitution.

Justice Clark for the Court · Schempp p. 222

In the relationship between man and religion, the State is firmly committed to a position of neutrality.

Justice Clark for the Court · Schempp p. 226

Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.

Justice Clark for the Court · Schempp p. 225

We agree of course that the State may not establish a "religion of secularism" in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion

Justice Clark for the Court · Schempp p. 225

Thus the excusal provision in its operation subjects them to a cruel dilemma.

Justice Brennan, concurring · Schempp pp. 289-290

Actually, the plaintiffs have not alleged that their freedom of religion has been abridged but rather that their freedom from religion has been abridged.

Judge Roberts · O'Hair v. Paine, 312 F. Supp. 434 (1969)

Mrs. O'Hair's contention concerning the judicial oath — i.e., "So help me God" systematically excludes agnostics and atheists from the judiciary — approaches absurdity.

Fifth Circuit, per curiam · O'Hair v. Paine, 432 F.2d 66 (1970)

No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall anyone be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.

Texas Constitution art. 1, sec. 4, as quoted in the opinion · O'Hair v. Hill, 641 F.2d 307 (1981)

The other side

The governmental neutrality which the First and Fourteenth Amendments require in the cases before us, in other words, is the extension of evenhanded treatment to all who believe, doubt, or disbelieve—a refusal on the part of the State to weight the scales of private choice.

Justice Potter Stewart, the sole dissenter in Schempp, writing for a record he thought too thin · Schempp p. 317

a refusal to permit religious exercises thus is seen, not as the realization of state neutrality, but rather as the establishment of a religion of secularism, or at the least, as government support of the beliefs of those who think that religious exercises should be conducted only in private.

Justice Stewart, dissenting · Schempp p. 313

We think that neither constitutional provision is violated, for, as we see it, neither the First nor the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to stifle all rapport between religion and government.

Judge Hornby for the four-judge Maryland majority, 1962 · MdCt62

I believe this is a wonderful expression by a very good lady, and there is little doubt of the truth and wisdom of her statement.

Rep. Frank J. Becker of New York, introducing a constituent-style article against the ruling · CR-Becker, 2 July 1964 (FBI-2 PDF p. 39)

She has overstepped her bounds by making the request that American citizens have to be told where and when they can pray.

Gene Schneider, Pampa Jaycees, organizer of a letter campaign about the Apollo 8 reading · UPI clipping, FBI-2 PDF p. 35

wasn't worth extraditing

Thomas B. Finan, Maryland Attorney General, on her return from Hawaii in 1964 · Baltimore Sun, 28 June 1964, FBI-2 PDF p. 4

Where accounts differ

PointOne accountAnotherHow the page handles it
When she left Baltimore for Hawaii1963, because of local hostility to the case (Wikipedia map, citing Thackrey 1965)Fled after a scuffle with Baltimore police on 20 June 1964; extradition sought 30 June 1964 (AP and Sun clippings, FBI-2)Use the clippings' 1964; mention the hostility she described only as her account
Whether the Supreme Court's 1963 ruling banned "prayer"Popular shorthand: she "removed prayer from schools" (Pampa clipping, Becker insert)Prayer recited by the State was struck in Engel v. Vitale (1962); Schempp struck required Bible reading and the Lord's Prayer; private prayer was untouched (Schempp pp. 205, 222-226)Say what the Court actually ruled, and that Engel came first and was not her case
How many justices"8 to 1" (Wikipedia map)Eight joined the result and Stewart dissented; there were three concurrences (Schempp pp. 227-320)State "eight to one" with the concurrences noted
Whether the 1964 Realist quotation is hersAs quoted in the Congressional Record by a hostile memberNot seen in the original magazineDo not use until verified
When she stopped believingShe read the Bible at twelve or thirteen in the sixth grade, Akron, and never accepted it after that day (Le Beau, quoting her) [4]She "would claim to have been an atheist from about age six" (WJM) and was "somewhat religious" in adolescence, with a yearbook goal of serving God (WJM, Orr) [62] [64]; Le Beau reports she discounted an immediate or sudden rejection [63]Say "by her own account" and give the Bible weekend as her story; add that her son and the yearbook tell a messier one
Her middle nameEvalyn (LeBeau) [1]Elizabeth (WJM, Dracos) [1]Avoid the middle name

List of illustrations

This page uses only public-domain and Creative Commons images; each is credited with its source and licence.

  1. Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963), p. 203: first page of the syllabus, No. 142 argued 27-28 Feb 1963, decided 17 June 1963 — Supreme Court of the United States, 1963-06-17 · United States Reports, vol. 374, Library of Congress (tile.loc.gov), federal court record · Public domain (US federal court opinion; U.S. Reports vol. 374, Library of Congress)
  2. Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963), p. 212: the Murrays' petition: 'sinister, alien and suspect' — Supreme Court of the United States, 1963-06-17 · United States Reports, vol. 374, Library of Congress (tile.loc.gov), federal court record · Public domain (US federal court opinion; U.S. Reports vol. 374, Library of Congress)
  3. Official portrait of Associate Justice Tom C. Clark (13 April 1956) — Unknown photographer (Supreme Court of the United States), 1956-04-13 · Supreme Court of the United States, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (Commons template PD-USGov-SCOTUS; credit 'Photograph from the Supreme Court of the United States')
  4. The Warren Court, October 1962 to 1965 (official group photograph) — Supreme Court of the United States (official photograph), 1962-10-01 · Official photograph, Supreme Court of the United States, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (Commons template PD-USGov; credit 'US Government')
  5. Clipping: Baltimore Sun, 'Finan Repeats Murray Stand', 28 June 1964 (FBI file part 02, PDF p.4) — Federal Bureau of Investigation (file 105-HQ-90854), 1964-06-28 · FBI file on Madalyn Murray O'Hair (105-HQ-90854), FOIA release, via Internet Archive item MadalynMurrayOHair · Public Domain Mark 1.0 (archive.org item rights field: creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/); FBI records, a US federal work
  6. Clipping: Washington Post, Peter Winterble, 'Woman Who Fought School Prayers: Tax the Churches, Mrs. O'Hair Urges' (FBI file part 01, PDF p.2) — Federal Bureau of Investigation (file 105-HQ-90854), 1966-04 · FBI file on Madalyn Murray O'Hair (105-HQ-90854), FOIA release, via Internet Archive item MadalynMurrayOHair · Public Domain Mark 1.0 (archive.org item rights field: creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/); FBI records, a US federal work
  7. Apollo 8: the rising Earth over the lunar horizon (AS08-14-2383) — NASA, 1968-12-24 · NASA (as08-14-2383), NASA Image and Video Library · Public domain (NASA, US federal government work; NASA image use policy: not copyrighted)
  8. Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1983 in front of the Robert Ingersoll statue, Glen Oak Park, Peoria — Alan Light, 1983 · Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons; Flickr original)

Sources

Tier 1 — the subject's own words (writings, letters, diaries, trial records)

  • [Schempp] Abington School District v. Schempp; Murray v. Curlett, 374 U.S. 203 (1963). Page-numbered text from the Library of Congress U.S. Reports PDF (tile.loc.gov usrep374203), saved as research/texts/schempp-usrep.txt with [[374 U.S. p.N]] markers; second copy from static.case.law (schempp.txt). Opinion of the Court pp. 205-227 (Clark), Douglas 227, Brennan 230, Goldberg 305, Stewart 308-320. Public domain.
  • [MdCt62] Murray v. Curlett, 228 Md. 239, 179 A.2d 698 (1962). Text from static.case.law (research/texts/murray-md-1962.txt); the text carries no page numbers, so pin cites to the printed reporter are still to be added. Public domain.
  • [MdOrder63] Murray v. Curlett, 232 Md. 368 (31 July 1963), the mandate order. static.case.law.
  • [Paine-D] O'Hair v. Paine, 312 F. Supp. 434 (W.D. Tex. 1969). static.case.law.
  • [Paine-S] O'Hair v. Paine, 397 U.S. 531 (1970), per curiam. static.case.law.
  • [Paine-5] O'Hair v. Paine, 432 F.2d 66 (5th Cir. 1970). static.case.law.
  • [Hill] O'Hair v. Hill, 641 F.2d 307 (5th Cir. 1981), panel opinion; and 652 F.2d 423 (en banc order, 22 July 1981). static.case.law.
  • [FBI-1] FBI file "Madalyn Murray O'Hair", part 1 (archive.org item MadalynMurrayOHair, "Madalyn Murray OHair 01"; public domain mark). Mostly clippings; OCR text in research/texts/fbi-ohair-01.txt; clean passages in fbi-ohair-handread.txt.
  • [FBI-2] Same item, part 2; includes a Congressional Record insert. OCR in fbi-ohair-02.txt.
  • [FBI-hand] research/texts/fbi-ohair-handread.txt: my hand transcription, from page images, of the clippings and the Congressional Record insert quoted below. The scans' OCR is too corrupt to verify against; a reviewer should look at the page named in each header.
  • [CR-Becker] Congressional Record, 88th Congress, 2d Session, Extension of Remarks of Hon. Frank J. Becker, 2 July 1964 ("Women of America, for God's Sake, Awake" by Mrs. Phil Regan), as clipped at FBI-2 PDF pp. 39-40 (stamped 78-79). The clipping does not show the Record's page number.

Tier 2 — scholarly biographies and encyclopedias

  • [LeBeau] Bryan F. Le Beau, The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair (New York University Press, 2003). Copyrighted. archive.org isbn_9780814751718 (lending). SECOND PASS: the full text and page images return 401/403 to the tool, so I read only the sentences that the Internet Archive's full-text-search service returns around exact phrases (about 100 characters each), saved in research/notes/fts-snippets.txt. Page numbers cannot be read; where a running head showed ("22 OUT OF OBSCURITY") the page is inferred. Treat every LeBeau claim as read in fragments; confirm by borrowing before quoting more than a phrase.
  • [Dracos] Ted Dracos, Ungodly (Free Press, 2003). Copyrighted. archive.org ungodly00tedd and ungodly00tedd_0 (lending; text locked). Read as search snippets only, as for LeBeau. Dracos is a sensational biography; weigh accordingly.

Tier 3 — popular biographies and journalism

  • [WJM] William J. Murray, My Life Without God (1982; archive.org copies mylifewithoutgod00murr is the 1992 Harvest House edition, mylifewithoutgod0000murr the 2012 edition). Copyrighted; text locked; read as search snippets only. The author is her son and a Christian apologist: a partisan witness.
  • [AllQ] Jon Garth Murray and Madalyn O'Hair, All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists with All the Answers, 2nd ed. (American Atheist Press, Austin, 1986), archive.org allquestionsyoue0000murr (lending, snippets). Her own spoken answers in a Q&A format.
  • [AtheistSpeaks] Madalyn Murray O'Hair, An Atheist Speaks (American Atheist Press, 1986), archive.org atheistspeaksame0000mada (lending, snippets): her radio talks.
  • [Wright] Lawrence Wright, Saints and Sinners (Knopf, 1993), archive.org saintssinnerswal00wrig_0 (lending, snippets): a journalist's chapter on her; gives sources for her Bible story to Murray and O'Hair, op. cit.
  • [Joshi] S. T. Joshi, The Unbelievers: The Evolution of Modern Atheism (Prometheus, 2011), ch. 10 "Madalyn Murray O'Hair: Prayer out of the Schools"; archive.org unbelieversevolu0000josh (lending, snippets).
  • [Press-leads] Time, 10 Feb 1997 ("Where's Madalyn?"); Austin Chronicle, Robert Bryce, 1996-1999 (including "Preying on Atheists", 4 June 1999); New York Times, Ross E. Milloy, 16 Mar 2001; Dallas Observer, John MacCormack, 1999 and 2001; Playboy interview, October 1965; The Realist (the interview quoted in Becker's insert); Alan Wolfe, New Republic, 12 Apr 2004. All copyrighted; none read. LEAD ONLY.
  • [Sun-clips] Baltimore Sun, Washington Post and AP/UPI clippings preserved in the FBI file (dated by the file's stamps). They are the newspapers' own reports; cited as reported, not as findings.

Tier 4 — maps to other sources only (Wikipedia and similar). Never cited in the script.

  • Wikipedia, "Madalyn Murray O'Hair" and "William J. Murray" (raw wikitext saved in research/notes/). Used as a map to the leads above; every Wikipedia-only fact is marked unverified.

Opposition sources — contemporary critics and religious responses

  • [Stewart] Justice Potter Stewart, dissenting, Schempp 374 U.S. 308-320.
  • [Hornby] Judge Hornby for the Maryland majority, 228 Md. 239.
  • [Brune-note] Chief Judge Brune's Maryland dissent is on her side of the question; cited under claims, not as opposition.
  • [Becker] Rep. Frank J. Becker, CR 2 July 1964; [Finan] Maryland Attorney General Thomas B. Finan (Schempp p. 203 as amicus; Sun, 28 June 1964); [Pampa] Gene Schneider, Pampa Jaycees (UPI clipping); [Flyer] "Project Astronaut" flyer in FBI-2.

Leads not reached (do not use until read)

  • House Judiciary Committee, School Prayers hearings on the Becker and other amendments, 88th Cong., 2d Sess. 1964, three volumes: archive.org schoolprayershea0001unit, 0002unit, 0003unit. The Internet Archive returns 401 for the text of all three (lending copies); HathiTrust and Google Books full view were not reachable. Retry via HathiTrust full view or govinfo.
  • Apollo 8 Christmas Eve transmission (NASA Apollo Flight Journal and Apollo 8 voice transcript): history.nasa.gov pages redirect; the Wayback Machine returned 429. Retry.
  • O'Hair v. Cooke (Austin City Council prayer, Western District of Texas, 1970s) and the Fifth Circuit opinion; CourtListener lists only the Supreme Court certiorari denials of 1981 (454 U.S. 824; 449 U.S. 1106). Find through static.case.law by reporter volume.
  • United States v. Karr / Waters (Western District of Texas, Judge Sam Sparks, 2000-2001) and any Fifth Circuit opinion: not found in CourtListener. The coordinator's note of a 2001 Fifth Circuit opinion in "US v. Waters" could not be confirmed; Waters pleaded and did not go to trial per Wikipedia's map, so there may be no such opinion.
  • Chronicling America 1963 coverage (Evening Star, Washington): loc.gov returned 503 throughout. Retry.
  • Alternative Views #091, "A Conversation with Madalyn Murray O'Hair" (1980, archive.org AV_091-A_CONVERSATION_WITH_MADALYN_MURRAY_OHAIR_PART_I): her own voice, but licence is CC BY-NC-SA, so unusable on a monetized channel. Listen for research only.
  • FBI Vault page (vault.fbi.gov): blocked by Cloudflare; the same file is on archive.org and was used.
  • US Army and WAC records (NARA), Rossford High yearbook 1936 (Ohio Memory): not fetched.