Did everybody know this?

I just posted this in another thread that RA-04 started. But it fits here, too:

Butterfly McQueen, a Life Member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and a member since 1981, died tragically of injuries suffered in a kerosene-heater accident at her Augusta, Georgia home on Dec. 22, 1995.

She told Gayle White, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution (Oct. 8, 1989): "As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of religion."

"If we had put the energy on earth and on people that we put on mythology and on Jesus Christ, we wouldn't have any hunger or homelessness..."

In 1975, at the age of 64, Ms. McQueen received a bachelor's degree in political science from New York City College.

An off-stage role she enjoyed was that of Santa Claus at children's hospitals. She reported that children were delighted with a black female Santa with a high voice...

http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/ebtomcat.htm

here's a thread from the Meeting Room I started last year, and my original post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=111&topic_id=32866

In Praise of Butterfly McQueen



She was born Thelma McQueen, the daughter of a stevedore and a maid. She studied dance, and became a successful Broadway dancer and actress, taking her stage name from her performance in "The Butterfly Ballet" from a 1935 staging of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

In 1939, she played the part she spent the rest of her career fighting against - Prissy, the simple-minded maid in "Gone With the Wind". She refused to participate in a watermelon-eating scene that had been scripted, and it was cut at her insistence.

Stuck with playing the same type of role for the next 8 years, she gave up on Hollywood in 1947. She appeared occasionally on television (again, usually as a maid) but mostly worked a variety of odd-jobs to sustain herself - a real-life maid, a taxi dispatcher, a seamstress, a saleslady at Saks. She also volunteered as a Santa Claus at childrens hospitals - a small, black woman with a high voice. The kids are reported to have adored her.

At the age of 64, she received a Bachelors Degree in Political Science from the City College of New York.

She was an atheist her entire adult life. She died of severe burns after an accident with a kerosene heater set her clothing on fire in 1995. Some quotes from Butterfly McQueen:

"I'm an atheist, and Christianity appears to me to be the most absurd imposture of all the religions, and I'm puzzled that so many people can't see through a religion that encourages irresponsibility and bigotry."

"As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of religion."

"If we had put the energy on earth and on people that we put on mythology and on Jesus Christ, we wouldn't have any hunger or homelessness."

"They say the streets are going to be beautiful in heaven. I'm trying to make the streets beautiful here. At least, in Georgia and in New York, I live on beautiful streets. When it's clean and beautiful, I think America is heaven. And some people are hell."


On her death, she left a couple rental properties she owned to the tenants living in them. She left what small amounts of cash she had to charities, including the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the SPCA. She left her body to science.


Thanks, Butterfly.

This brings tears to me eyes.

she was quite a woman.

"On her death, she left a couple rental properties she owned to the tenants living in them. She left what small amounts of cash she had to charities, including the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the SPCA. She left her body to science."

Thank you.

thanks for posting it!

... had a lot of "fun" with that. :(

This is from the article I linked:

She ran from her house during the fire, engulfed by flames, suffering second- and third-degree burns over 70% of her body. She was conscious when firefighters arrived and told them how her clothes had caught fire.

One Christian neighbor, Mary Harden, was quoted in the Atlanta Constitution shamelessly exploiting Ms. McQueen's suffering: "I believe she made it into heaven. She threw up both her hands as she was coming out of that burning house, and made it in with Jesus."

She threw up her hands because she was BURNING TO DEATH, you moron.

Sheesh!

enjoyed it.

There is a thread in R&T listing the top ten Catholics.

I think we've done this before but how about again.

Top 10 atheists. (I honestly don't feel confident in picking a top 10 myself so I'd really be interested in seeing who would be listed here.)

I haven't been here that long, I must have missed it.

...for a top 10 atheists list...

Emma Goldman (atheist AND one of the first feminists)
Isaac Asimov
Carl Sagan
Thomas A. Edison
Luther Burbank

At least one representative from the ancient Greeks. No, Virginia, atheism didn't start just so Xians could be "persecuted..." :eyes:

Will think of more when I get home and have more time...