In 1894, the Georgia Legislature empowered Madison to establish public schools, permitting Board of Education elections and requiring that white and colored children be taught at separate schools. Citizens overwhelmingly supported starting a municipal school system by a vote of 189 to 3. M.F. Atkinson of Madison constructed a prominent frame building on Burney Street, then the main corridor from N. Main Street into the growing African American neighborhood of Canaan. Burney Street School, open from 1896 to 1958, served grades 1 through 6, and together with St. Paul's A.M.E. Church, founded in 1882, and C.M.E. churches, served as a community center for the black community. Later, Pearl Street High School was built at the terminus of Burney Street and operated from 1952 to 1970. After the rejection of separate but equal and the last segregated graduation of the Classes of 1969-1970, the consolidated county school system integrated, and Pearl St. High and Elementary became Morgan County Middle School.