Carl Sanders dead, governor led Georgia through turbulent '60s

Carl E. Sanders, a moderate Democratic governor of Georgia in the 1960s who banished "whites only" signs from the state Capitol and who promoted education and other advances that helped make Atlanta the center of the New South, died Sunday at an Atlanta hospital. He was 89.

The death was confirmed by officials from the law firm that he established, Troutman Sanders. He had complications from a recent fall.

Sanders was 37 when he was elected governor in 1962 in the first Georgia gubernatorial contest in decades to be decided by popular vote. The old system, which gave preference to rural areas and limited the influence of urban voters and African-Americans, had been declared illegal by a federal court.

He won the Democratic primary against a former governor, Marvin Griffin, who ran an openly racist campaign in which he said a vote for Sanders was "a vote for Negroes next door." Sanders was unopposed in the general election after the Republican candidate died.

During his single term in office -- Georgia governors were not allowed to serve consecutive terms at the time -- Sanders launched reforms that were considered progressive for a state in the Deep South.

Pragmatic about racial matters, Sanders was an early supporter of school desegregation. In a quiet but bold move soon after he took office in 1963, Sanders ordered "whites only" signs removed from drinking fountains, the cafeteria and other public accommodations in the state Capitol in Atlanta.

"The courts had already ruled, saying it was unlawful," he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2008. "I went ahead and did what I knew the law said to do. And while I was doing that, [Gov. George] Wallace was over in Alabama standing in the schoolhouse door."

During Sanders' tenure, the University of Georgia's faculty doubled in size, several community colleges opened their doors and a statewide educational television network was started. The state hired 10,000 teachers and added 6,000 classrooms.

Sanders helped finance improvements to the Atlanta airport and promoted the building of 50 airstrips around the state that were a considerable boon to business growth. He also played a major role in securing two professional sports franchises -- baseball's Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League -- that officially made Atlanta a major-league city.

"He did more for the state than anybody I know," Zell Miller, a former Georgia governor and U.S. senator, told the Journal-Constitution.

Before President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sanders was touted as a possible running mate with Kennedy in 1964. He was popular and left the state with a budget surplus at the end of his term.

Attempting a political comeback in 1970, Sanders was attacked in the Democratic primary as being too liberal for Georgia. He was beaten by a little-known peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter, who used the governor's mansion as a steppingstone to the White House in 1976.