By Herbert I. White
The Charlotte Post
Retired AME Zion Bishop George E. Battle Jr., a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member and an advocate for health care and economic development died March 9 at age 77.
Bishop George E. Battle Jr. understood the challenges of humble beginnings.
Bishop Battle, who died March 9 at age 77, was a retired senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and former Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board chair. As one of eight children reared by a single mother in Rocky Mount, he was an adept farmhand who pulled tobacco, picked cotton and planted corn, soybeans and sweet potatoes. That background led to a lifetime of service and advocacy for people in need of opportunity.
“What happens between our entrance and our exit?” he asked during the 2014 unveiling of his wax likeness at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore. … “I’m not here because men in high places call my name. I’m here because I had a mother that had a 10th grade education but who every night before she went to bed demanded we say our prayers.
“The only thing I wanted to do when I was young was to graduate from high school, but God had another plan for my life. I once earned 30 cents an hour picking cotton, and now I lead the greatest church this side of Heaven. That’s what God had in store for me. If you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all of these things will be added unto you. I might not be one of the most eloquent speakers you hear, but that doesn’t bother me as long as I can get a prayer through. Even today when my way gets tough my God can see my way clear, and I can still hear momma say ‘God will make a way somehow.’”
Bishop Battle, a champion of education and health care, earned The Charlotte Post Foundation’s Luminary award in 2015, for his contributions to the community. Among them were the launch of Greater Enrichment Program, an after-school and tutorial initiative that serves children in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. He was a member of the Carolinas HealthCare Foundation board and spent 33 years with Carolinas HealthCare System as commissioner and adviser and before retiring in 2014.
“A giant of a Christian man who would not judge you no matter what circumstances looked like,” congregant William Campbell of Westchester, New York, posted on the AME Zion church’s Facebook page. “I am so grateful for our private prayer times and his valuable advice and support. Zion was blessed to have him in our midst.”
A 1969 graduate of Livingstone College in Salisbury, Bishop Battle was co-founder of the Urban League of Central Carolinas and Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP board member. He also founded the nonprofit Biddleville Housing Corporation that built and renovated homes in the Biddleville-Five Points community to increase homeownership.
In 2021, Atrium Health CEO Gene Woods announced the launch of the Bishop George E. Battle Jr. Scholarship Fund to support continuing education of people from underserved communities. Battle was a commissioner emeritus of the Atrium Health’s board and Atrium Health Foundation Board.
Through an initial $5 million gift, the scholarship fund benefits people majoring in health sciences at an Atrium Health-affiliated college or university, including Wake Forest School of Medicine, Carolinas College of Health Sciences and Cabarrus College of Health Sciences. Atrium Health will be engaging the community to match the initial $5 million to create a $10 million fund by the time the first students are seated at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Charlotte.
Bishop Battle also served for 17 years as a member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board, including four as chairman. A lifelong advocate for at-risk and economically disadvantaged communities, he received more than 100 awards and honors, including the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest award.
