Religion in schools has been a hot topic for parents since Madalyn Murray O’Hair marched up the steps of the United States Supreme Court in the 1960s because her son was forced to say prayers in school. O’Hair, who was an atheist, did not believe that children should have to worship in the same place they receive their public education. It would be this moment that Madalyn Murray O’Hair came to be known as the most hated woman in America.
Born Madalyn Mays on April 13, 1919, her family baptized her at four years old, into her father’s religion, Presbyterian. Madalyn graduated high school from Rossford High School in Rossford, Ohio, and then went off to marry John Henry Roths in 1941. However, the two would separate after they both joined the military during World War Two. In April of 1945, as a member of the Women’s Army Corps, Madalyn met William J. Murray, Jr. While Murray refused to divorce his wife because he was Roman Catholic, Madalyn divorced her husband and then adopted the last name of Murray.
Together, William and Madalyn had a son after returning home from the war, whom they named William J. Murray III, also known as Bill. Madalyn would go on to obtain her bachelor’s degree in 1949 and earn a law degree a few years later. However, she was never able to pass the bar. Therefore, Madalyn moved, Bill, and another son, Jon Garth Murray, to Baltimore, Maryland. Her youngest son, whom she called Garth, never met his birth father, William J. Murray as his parents separated before his birth.
O’Hair To The Supreme Court
Not too long after O’Hair and her boys moved to Baltimore to live with her mother and brother, things took a drastic turn for her oldest son and the Baltimore Public School district. In 1960, O’Hair decided to file a lawsuit on behalf of her son, William J. Murray against the Baltimore Public School system because she felt that her son should not have to go to school and have to recite his prayers. In the lawsuit, O’Hair claimed that it was unconstitutional to make her son read from the Bible and recite the prayers.
The issue of her son having to recite the prayers and take part in the reading of the Bible came to O’Hair’s attention when Bill came home one day and said that other students bullied him because he refused to take part in the activities. O’Hair started to have a bigger problem with the issue when Bill continued to tell her that his teachers and other administrators at the school allowed the students to bully Bill because he refused to take part in the activities.