Madalyn Murry O'Hair (1919-1995) was a staunch atheist whose court cases brought down rulings from the Supreme Court that prayer is not to be required in public schools.

Madalyn Murray O'Hair called herself "the most hated woman in America." Although School Board of Abbington Township v. Schempp is usually cited as the case through which the Supreme Court ruled that public schools may not require Bible reading, the second decision on that issue was a case filed in 1959 by O'Hair and her son, William J. Murray (Murray v. Curlett). The decision was handed down in 1963. As atheists they protested the Baltimore school board's requirement that the public school day begin with prayer or Bible reading. Murray, as she was named then, attracted notoriety by organizing the American Atheist Center (1959), American Atheists, Inc. (1965), and the Society of Separationists (1965). O'Hair's younger son, Jon Garth Murray, and her granddaughter, Robin Murray...