Statue honoring Black Civil War hero and pioneer barber to stand on MSUM campus
The statue of Battles will stand at the campus of MSUM, near the Paseka School of Business. It is part of a project to honor him for his courage and entrepreneurial spirit.
By Kevin Wallevand
June 23, 2023
MOORHEAD — At Sanders Metal Products in north Fargo, there is the sound of presses and machinery at work, where high-pressure water and sand begin to carve and cut out a metal silhouette statue of Felix Battles.
A project that started back in 2018, a statue to commemorate Battles 150 years after he arrived to the area, will be erected on the Minnesota State University Moorhead campus near the Paseka School of Business.
It is part of a project to honor him for his courage and entrepreneurial spirit.
Battles arrived here after first escaping slavery and then serving in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Battles came to town when Fargo-Moorhead was just being settled, and was a respected barber in Moorhead, with shops on what is now Center Avenue.