Whitfield County GaArchives News.....Quite A Sensation June 28, 1892
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Linda Blum-Barton http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00003.html#0000645 April 1, 2006, 7:13 pm

The Weekly Constitution, Atlanta, Ga. June 28, 1892
Created by the Action of the School Board of Dalton.
Dalton, Ga., June 25.-- The action of the public school board last week in the 
election of all the old teachers except Misses Agnes Morris and Nell Barrett, 
two of the acknowledged highest grade teachers in the school, has produced 
something of a sensation.  It was more than a surprise to these young ladies, 
as well as to their many friends.  They say they are at an utter loss to 
understand so summary a dismissal, without charge or notice, and further they 
decline to talk.  In the meantime the gossip of the street presents many and 
diverse views.  A card from Father Clifford intimates very clearly that in the 
case of Miss Morris it was sectarian prejudice, and there are others who agree 
with him.  The following is Father Clifford's card to The Dalton Argus:
For more than nine years that I have lived here, I have never yet put myself in 
public print, and I have, to the knowledge of all good citizens, religiously 
abstained from interfering in things civil and public.  The recent action of 
the public school board forces me to the front on this occasion.  Their action 
I deem at once an outrage and an injustice.  In the formation of this august 
body we were of course ignored, and when in the teaching staff we got a mere 
representation, I was silent.  A spirit of intolerance has been growing amongst 
some members of the board of late and it culminated in deeming this crumb too 
much, and denying it us entirely, though our people are taxed equally with 
others for public school education.

Miss Agnes Morris has been in the Dalton public schools since their inception, 
and with what honor and dignity she has conducted herself and her school I 
leave to the verdict of the people of Dalton; yet the school board has sought 
this defenseless girl for a victim, and she, too, the daughter of a widow.  
They need not tell me or anybody else that they did so to make room for a man; 
in that case the natural sequence would be to put her back where she was 
before.  The thing bears a mark of prejudice which will not redound the honor 
of the Dalton school board in future history, and the present decision I leave 
in the hands of all thinking people.    M. J. Clifford

Others claim that it is the beginning of a successful fight against the high 
school as a part of the public system, while others say that it is only a 
matter of trouble that has been brewing for some time inside of the schoolroom 
between the various teachers.  Those of the school board from whom we have got 
an expression say that in the case of Miss Morris it is simply a desire to fill 
her place with a male teacher, with the additional charge that she and Miss 
Barrett, have not been in perfect record with Superintendent Thomas.  On the 
other hand we have learned that General Thomas has expressed a desire for Miss 
Barrett's retention and it is generally believed that she will be retained.

Another phase of the matter is taking shape in behalf of Miss Morris.  The 
confederate veterans may take decided action in her favor.  Her father, one of 
the most gallant confederate captains that ever marched a company, the old 
Dalton Guards from this city, was killed in the battle about Richmond while she 
was a babe in her mother's arms.  Almost entirely self-educated she has passed 
her life in the struggle of maintaining her widowed mother and family of 
sisters, and some of the old veterans claim that no cause for her removal has 
yet been assigned that justifies making the direct fight upon the helpless one 
who should receive instead their first and most hearty sympathy.  They laugh at 
the idea that General Thomas, a gallant veteran, should be placed in the 
position of complaining, for discipline's sake, against this child of the 
confederacy.



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