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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
Though Murray refused to get a divorce and marry Madalyn, she divorced her husband, changed her surname to Murray, and named her newborn son William J. Murray, after his father. Madalyn moved with the baby to Baltimore, where her mother and brother lived. In 1954, Bill's half-brother Jon Garth Murray was born. When Bill was still a child ...
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.
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.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of American Atheists, responded by suing the United States government, alleging violations of the First Amendment. [8] The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
To indemnify the organization from being financially depleted through a lawsuit, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of AA, formed six organizations in addition to the anchor corporation, Society of Separationists, Inc. A board of directors was established for each corporation consisting of O'Hair, her son, Jon Murray, president for life of American ...