Atheists to unveil first monument on public land


STARKE, Fla. — After years of fights over religious monuments on public land, a county courthouse in Florida will soon be the home of the nation’s first monument to atheism on public property.

On June 29, the group American Atheists will unveil a 1,500-pound granite bench engraved with secular-themed quotations from its founder, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, among others, in front of the Bradford County Courthouse in Starke, Fla.

The New Jersey-based group, which has a membership of about 4,000 atheists, humanists and other nonbelievers, won the right to erect the monument in a settlement reached in March over a 6-ton granite display of the Ten Commandments on the same property.

American Atheists sued Bradford County after the erection of that monument in 2012, claiming its place on the courthouse lawn represented a government endorsement of religion.

Both monuments were paid for by private money. Businessman Joe Anderson paid for the Ten Commandments monument through the Christian Men’s Fellowship, a local group, and the atheist monument was paid for by American Atheists with a grant from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation.