1960’s Baltimore single mother, Madalyn Murray, takes the school prayer issue all the way to the Supreme Court and wins.

SYNOPSIS:

Some interesting facts about Murray. Playboy magazine sold more copies containing her interview than at any other time. They were so much in demand they were selling in supermarkets, which for the 1960’s was highly unusual. Phil Donahue won syndication for his show 'Donahue' through a series of Murray interviews and thus kick-started the talk show era. Donahue searched for Murray to be the final guest on his show as the series closed, but she had strangely disappear. “Time” magazine ran on its cover “Where’s Madalyn?”

In Baltimore in the 60’s Madalyn Murray was a single mother, living with her parents

and trying to put her kids through school. When her eldest son asked if he could be

excused from attending religious instruction at school Madalyn backed his request.

Thus started 30 years of intense persecution.

Never willing to take a backward step, Madalyn Murray protested her son’s rights all

the way to the US Supreme Court. The Constitution stated there should be division

of church and state and yet this was clearly not the case in the public school system

where religious instruction was compulsory. As a result of Madalyn Murray’s actions

laws were changed and compulsory prayer in schools was banned.

For years after the decision Madalyn Murray and her family were ruthlessly

victimized by religious extremists until they were eventually forced to flee the state.

They were later extradited and put on trial on trumped-up charges. These were

thrown out of court.

The irony of the Madalyn Murray story is that Madalyn’s son, for whom she

sacrificed so much, was ‘reclaimed’ by the church, and now operates as a lay

preacher.

Madalyn Murray, with her second son and granddaughter, went on to establish the

American Atheists Foundation. The story of Madalyn Murray is a testament to

human courage and determination in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Madalyn Murray has had a major impact on the American psyche, helping to

produce the more liberal America of today, (she lays claim to first coining the term

‘black’ instead of ‘Negro’). She contributed in no small way to reducing the influence

of extreme church ideology on American society, and to a large extent bore the brunt

of the religious backlash on her own. Both Presidents Reagan and Bush later

publicly objected to the banning of compulsory prayer in schools; Bush going so far

as to state that atheists do not deserve a place in American society. With certain US

states recently banning the teaching of evolution in public schools, this is a

controversy that is being felt to this day.

Madalyn Murray, her second son and granddaughter, were later found murdered

and buried on a Texas ranch.

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B00AA2SZL4?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader

THE MOST HATED WOMAN IN AMERICA