It was a privilege to hear Ellen Johnson, president of the American Atheists for the last ten years. Working tirelessly, she is furthering two goals of the American Atheists: 1] Keeping state and church separate; 2] Protecting the civil rights of atheists and other "freethinking" groups. With visiting freethinkers attending Johnson's presentation, it was a good time for humanists to mingle and build solidarity for common objectives and issues.

Because Johnson speaks to many different groups and organizations, she has noticed that there are misperceptions and misinformation about the founder of American Atheists, Madalyn Murray O'Hair. In Johnson's observation, the older population has negative thoughts about O'Hair, many from the media, while younger people know little or nothing about her.

Born in 1919, O'Hair came from a poor union family in Pennsylvania, where her father owned a glass manufacturing company that hired only union workers. Baptized into the Presbyterian Church and raised by church-going parents, O'Hair claimed that she became an atheist after reading the complete Bible in her early teen years.

Earning a law degree in 1952, O'Hair, among other activities, served both in World War II and for the Foreign Service.

Many people are aware that O'Hair in 1963 won in the Supreme Court decision of Murray vs. Curlett where school prayers across the U.S. were ended in the public education system. Describing herself in 1963 as "the most hated woman in America," it was also later in 1963 that she founded American Atheists, working steadfastly and courageously as its leader for 32 years from 1964 to 1995 when Johnson then took over.

Undeterred by the backlash that she received for Murray vs. Curlett, like death threats and the victim of vandalism long after the 1963 decision, O'Hair continued to work toward the separation of church and state legal battles as the country's atheist-in-chief.

Too numerous to detail completely, Johnson shared a list of some of O'Hair's accomplishments.

• O'Hair founded the first American Atheist Library & Archives to collect and preserve Atheist history and publications.
• She founded the "American Atheist Radio Series" in 1980 as the first and only regularly scheduled Atheist broadcasts ever to be made in the United States and broadcast in 123 stations for a dozen years.
• She founded the "American Atheist Forum" in 1980, also the first and only regularly scheduled television broadcast ever to be produced and directed by Atheists. It was on the air for about sixteen years and aired on 130 major cities reaching an estimated 9.3 million homes.
• She founded the first local-level network of Atheist chapters.
• She worked with an early chapter director, prominent businessman Lloyd Thoren, now deceased, so that he could found the first American Atheist Museum in the United States, located in Indiana. Later, O'Hair worked with him to establish the first Dial-An-Atheist service.
• She founded the United World Atheists, which brought together Atheist groups throughout the world.
• She founded the American Atheist Press, which publishes Atheist books. In 1987 it obtained press credentials for covering both the Democratic and the Republican National Conventions.
• She founded the American Atheist magazine, the first open Atheist journal.
• She founded the "American Atheist International Radio Forum" which was heard on 2,000 radio stations worldwide.
• She originated the American Atheists annual convention.
• She was the first person to propose that the United States and all the governments of the world recognize as celebration days the four days of natural events which affect all the world: the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes and the Winter and Summer Solstices
• O'Hair and Jon Murray worked with Arnold Via of Virginia, to create the first Atheist cemetery in the United States.
• They worked with a number of leaders in the Gay movement to assist them to set up the first Gay Atheist League of America, and later, a separate national American Gay Atheists organization.
• O'Hair was able to obtain a ruling from the Veterans' Administration to add to the grave markers in veteran's cemeteries the symbol of American Atheism.
• The Murray-O'Hairs and American Atheists organized and carried out the first Atheist picketing of any pope in the western hemisphere, in Chicago, Illinois, in 1979.
• O'Hair was arrested and jailed in November 1977 for objecting to prayers at a city council meeting, and Robin Murray-O'Hair was jailed in December 1988, rather than take an oath "so help me God" in order to serve as a Juror.
• Another notable case in 1969, O'Hair vs. Pain, because of the publicity it aroused, caused the United States government to abandon plans to carry religious programming into space in U.S. NASA operations.
• In 1977 the nation-rocking case to remove "In God We Trust" from our currency and coins was filed by American Atheists titled O'Hair vs. Blumenthal. In ruling against the case, U.S. District Judge Jack Roberts agreed with a federal appeals court, which said that the use of the motto on coins "has nothing to do with the establishment of religion." The United States Supreme Court refused to review the case on appeal.
• In another case, O'Hair vs. Wojtila, O'Hair, Jon and American Atheists challenged the right of Pope John Paul II to give a full Roman Catholic mass on the Washington Mall in the District of Columbia in 1979.
• Murray vs. Goldstein attempted to stop the tax exemptions of church businesses.
• O'Hair vs. Briscoe attempted to remove a crèche from the rotunda of the Texas capitol building.
• O'Hair vs. Hill fought the exclusion of Atheists from public office.
• Collins vs. Chandler attempted to stop prayers at high school commencement exercises.
• Reed vs. Ingham County was fought over the firing of a policeman in Michigan because he was an Atheist.
• O'Hair vs. Nixon (1970) attempted to stop full-scale church services in the White House.
• Murray vs. 27 radio stations and Society of Separationists, Inc. vs. FCC both concerned the demand for equal time for Atheists under the "Fairness Doctrine."
• O'Hair v. Cooke in 1977 challenged the opening prayer at city council meetings in Austin, Texas.

Such objectives like eliminating prayers in public schools and public government meetings, stopping tax exemptions by church businesses, ensuring that public office is open for everyone no matter their beliefs, and promoting equal job security for everyone regardless of their beliefs should interest us all. Johnson concluded by saying that there is no question that Madalyn O'Hair's lifetime of work has laid the foundation for successes today in keeping state and church separate and protecting the civil rights of all freethinkers.

--Sarah Smith