Carl Sanders

Sanders decided to make a bid for higher office in 1962.[5] Initially mulling over a potential race for the office of lieutenant governor which had a retiring incumbent, he had doubts when a similarly-named Atlanta attorney, Carl F. Sanders, declared his candidacy. Carl E. Sanders suspected that the other man had been planted to confuse voters and spoil his chances by another candidate, Peter Zack Geer. Geer denied the allegation. Carl E. Sanders then decided to run for governor. At the time he launched his candidacy in late April,[9] Georgia used the county unit system in its primaries, whereby the candidate who won the majority in most counties secured the party nomination, instead of the candidate which earned the majority of all votes across the state. This system greatly limited the chances of urban candidates for decades. Several weeks into the primary, federal courts declared this method unconstitutional, and left the nomination to be decided by popular vote.[5] Sanders campaigned on "a platform of progress", pledging to improve education, reorganize the State Highway Department, revamp mental health and penal institutions, recruit industry, and reapportion the General Assembly.[10]

Already seeking the nomination in the Democratic primary were former governor Marvin Griffin and incumbent Lieutenant Governor Garland T. Byrd. Byrd withdrew from the race after suffering a heart attack in May.[11] Griffin was a staunch supporter of racial segregation.[5] He attacked Sanders as too young for the governorship and not committed enough to defending segregation.[12] Sanders supported segregation but felt it was useless to oppose federal integration orders.[13] He promised to "maintain Georgia's traditional separation"[5] but said he opposed race-baiting politics and that "I tip my hat to the past, but I take off my coat to the future."[14] He also promised to keep public schools open, even if the federal government ordered them to integrate.[15] Griffin held a rally with Alabama governor-elect George Wallace, another staunch segregationist, to demonstrate his support for racial separation. Sanders mocked this strategy at his own rally the same day, describing Griffin as "so weak in his belief in Georgia and her people that he plans to import an outsider to meddle in our affairs. I don't need an Alabama crutch to help me."[14] Griffin pledged to oppose federal court orders to integrate and throughout the campaign vilified the "Negro bloc vote" in Georgia.[14] Following a confrontation between the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan and the Georgia State Patrol at a Klan rally, Griffin offered that he was unsure of how to handle such a situation. Sanders accused the former governor of having prior knowledge of the rally and of bring Klansmen into Georgia. Sanders also accused Griffin of having run a corrupt administration in his previous term.[12] In the primary, he defeated Griffin, receiving 494,978 votes (58.7 percent) to Griffin's 332,746 (39 percent).[16] Most of his support came from urban areas.[10] He then won the general election.[3] He took the oath of office on January 14 and was formally inaugurated as governor the following day.[17] Aged 37 upon his assumption of the office, he was the youngest governor in the country at the time.[18]

Sanders appointed a Governor's Commission for Efficiency and Improvement in Government, which managed reforms in the penal system, mental healthcare, the civil service, the Highway Department, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Education.[3][19] He worked with Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. to bring professional sports teams to the capital city,[13] and in 1963 he recruited a friend, Rankin M. Smith Sr., to fund the creation of the Atlanta Falcons football team.[3]

Sanders campaigned as a racial segregationist and did not actively support the civil rights movement for blacks when in office, but was forced to address racial issues on several occasions. He was regarded by observers as a racial moderate, and described his own position as "a segregationist but not a damned fool."[20] He regarded both white reactionaries and black civil rights activists as politically extreme.[21] Concerned that racial violence would interfere with his plans to expand Georgia's economy, he said, "while I am governor we are going to obey the laws, we are not going to resist federal court orders with violence, and we are not going to close any schools."[20] He appointed some blacks to state boards and the first blacks to the State Patrol and Georgia National Guard. Overall, his administration was staffed predominantly by whites and he appointed no black agency heads or judges. When confrontations between different groups over racial issues appeared, he tended to try and negotiate compromises, though he sent state police to Savannah in July 1963 to head off violence and placed police on standby in Atlanta in mid-1966 when Mayor Allen confronted angry black demonstrators.[20] He criticized rioters and testified to Congress against the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing it violated property rights.[22]

By the time Sanders became governor, it was common for this official to wield wide influence over the General Assembly, including being able to essentially name the Speaker of the House and legislative committee chairmen. He was one of the last governors to be able to exercise this amount of authority over the legislature.[23][24] In 1963 Leroy Johnson became the first black state senator in Georgia in decades. When guards at the State Capitol informed Sanders that Johnson and his black pages were ignoring signs designating "white" and "colored" restrooms and water fountains, the governor had the signage removed. Later, Johnson attempted to dine at the Commerce Club, an Atlanta venue frequented by legislators and other members of the state's political and economic elite. The white maître d' refused Johnson service, so he contacted Sanders. Sanders called club founder Robert W. Woodruff, who subsequently instructed the maître d' to serve Johnson.[24]

Sanders speaking at an airport dedication, 1966

Sanders was a fiscal conservative. Most of his budgeting focus was directed at public education. His administration's 1963 budget recommendation to the General Assembly devoted 56 percent of expenditures to education.[19] At the governor's request, the legislature created the Governor's Commission to Improve Education, with 25 members appointed by the governor.[25] The body included the first black people appointed to a state commission since the Reconstruction era.[26][20] Equipped with the commission's recommendations, the following year he stated that Georgia's education system was a "modern crisis" and called for a $30 million increase in taxes to improve schools.[25] This included a 50 cent increase on the tax per gallon on liquor, a 12 cent increase on the tax per case of beer, 1% increase in the corporate income tax, and the elimination of the vendors' commission on collection of the general sales tax.[19] He further requested that the State Board of Education be empowered to establish minimum standards and that $100 million in bonds be issued to fund new educational institution construction. The General Assembly incorporated his suggestions with minimal alterations.[25] Over the course of his tenure, schoolteacher and university faculty salaries were raised,[19] 10,000 additional teachers were hired, a record number of new schools were built, new junior colleges and vocational schools were created, and a Governor's Honors Program was established.[25]

Sanders asked the legislature to appropriate funds for airport construction to attract industry to outlying communities. As a result, 33 new community airports were established in Georgia between 1965 and 1966.[27] Georgia's economy performed well during his tenure, and the state had a budget surplus when he left office.[28]

While serving as governor, Sanders supported an attempt by the General Assembly to draft a new state constitution in 1963.[29] The proposed document was prevented from being scheduled for a referendum necessary to ratify it by a United States district court, which ruled that since the legislators who had created the constitution were from malapportioned districts, their work was invalid. Sanders was deeply disappointed by the ruling. The decision was later reversed by the United States Supreme Court, but by then there was not sufficient political will to revamp the constitution. On February 17, 1964, the Supreme Court ruled in Wesberry v. Sanders that Georgia had to redraw its congressional districts to comply with the principle of one man, one vote. The General Assembly had only four days to respond before its session was scheduled for adjournment, but Sanders urged it to redraw the districts. The legislators struggled with the process, and after his own floor leader had resigned the revisions to failure, Sanders visited the House floor on February 21 to encourage the body to keep working. Despite the vocal dissatisfaction of some legislators, a revised districting plan was ultimately passed.[30]

Sanders with President John F. Kennedy in 1962

Shortly after winning election, Sanders visited President of the United States John F. Kennedy. He was generally supportive of the president's administration and used his New Frontier rhetoric.[10]

In 1964 Sanders appointed a biracial delegation to represent Georgia at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, the first time that black people were represented on the delegation.[20] Sanders explained, "[T]his is not a social club. This is purely a political organization, based on the fact that every voter should be represented."[31]

Under the term limit law then in effect, Sanders was ineligible to run for re-election in 1966.[15] In the general election campaign that year, he endorsed Democratic nominee Lester Maddox, a segregationist, as his successor though the two had disagreed on many issues. At the Democratic State Convention in Macon on October 15, 1966, Sanders told the delegates: "A man should be loyal to his country, his family, to his God and to his political party—and don't you ever forget it."[32] In his speech, Sanders likened Maddox's Republican opponent, U.S. Representative Howard Callaway, to the "arrogance of Richard Nixon, the chameleon ability of Ronald Reagan to switch rather than fight, and the callous concern for human needs that is a throwback to McKinley, Harding, and Coolidge."[32] Callaway criticized Sanders for mishandling the state budget surplus, a position which weakened the Republican among anti-Maddox moderate voters.[32] Callaway led Maddox in the popular vote but failed to win a majority, and the Democratic-controlled Georgia General Assembly chose Maddox as governor. Sanders was succeeded by Maddox on January 10, 1967.[33]