Dr. Stacy Battle was around 5 years old when her father Dr. Clinton Battle decided to move his family and his medical practice away from Indianola.
In the early 1950s, the young Dr. Battle was saving lives in the Delta, and he had breathed new life into a dormant NAACP chapter. By the late 1950s, in the wake of the Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Battle was facing intense pressure from local whites.
He left Indianola, but his legacy remains.
“When we left Mississippi, what did he do? (He went) right back into the Civil Rights thing,” Dr. Stacy Battle said during last Thursday’s ceremony where a Mississippi Freedom Trail marker honoring her father was unveiled on Church Street.
Battle, according to a 2021 article in The Enterprise-Tocsin, had graduated high school at the age of 16, and by the age of 24, he had earned his doctor of medicine degree. He returned to his home state to practice medicine in order to fulfill the requirements of his college scholarship. That was a five-year commitment.
Upon his return, he not only saw the medical needs in the Delta but also the plight of African Americans, who largely had been denied voting rights.
“We honor his commitment to his idea that every member of the community deserves a voice in the way that community is governed,” said author J. Todd Moye, who was the keynote speaker at last Thursday’s event.
One of Battle’s most memorable medical achievements while in Indianola was the delivery of Linda and Lillian Matthews 70 years ago. The twins were conjoined at birth, attached from the tip of the breastbone to the navel.
Without much aid in the way of anesthesia, Battle managed to deliver the twins, who later became among the first in the United States to be successfully separated and survive.
Linda and Lillian Matthews spoke to the packed crowd at Mt. Beulah M.B. Church last Thursday.
They said that Battle would return to Indianola periodically during their childhood, bringing other physicians to examine the twins, who were considered at the time to be a modern medical miracle.
Moye said Battle had a great reputation in Indianola, among whites and Blacks.
“I had a lot of people tell me that white people in Indianola considered Dr. Battle the best doctor here,” Moye said. “(White people) didn’t visit his office during the daytime where they could be seen, but they went to him at night.”
The following is a history of the Battle Freedom Trail Marker, provided by Dr. Stacy White, who co-chaired the committee to receive the marker in Indianola.
Background and
formation of the
committee:
The Mississippi Freedom Trail was created in 2011 to honor people and places significant to the civil rights movement. In 2023, Dr. Stacy J. White learned about the application process to obtain a free Mississippi Freedom Trail marker. Growing up, she often heard her mother, Bernice Magruder White, share stories about her classmate at Indianola Colored High School, Dr. Clinton Battle, particularly his courageous work in voting rights and civil rights. Wanting to pay tribute to him, Dr. White helped form the Dr. Clinton Battle Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker Planning Committee, with the Sunflower County NAACP serving as an organizational supporter.
Application process and approval:
The application for the marker was a collaborative effort between Dr. Stacy J. White and civil rights veteran Margaret Kibbee. Dr. White submitted the application—along with extensive documentation and photos—to the Mississippi Humanities Council, where it was reviewed and approved for inclusion on the Mississippi Freedom Trail. Dr. White maintained ongoing communication with the Mississippi Humanities Council and Visit Mississippi until the marker was unveiled on September 11, 2025.
Committee composition and acknowledgment:
The committee was composed of Co-Chairs Dr. Stacy J. White and Charles Modley, and Committee Members Dr. Melvin Matthews, Attorney Alsee McDaniel, Margaret Kibbee, Zellie Orr, and Emma Golden.
The committee was grateful to have successfully completed the process and to see a historic marker installed.
This accomplishment was especially meaningful because funding for new Mississippi Freedom Trail markers was discontinued in early 2025.
