Sanders was elected the same day as George Wallace was in Alabama, Barnes noted. And where Wallace was defiant in opposing desegregation, Sanders was accepting. And although Birmingham and Atlanta were similar sizes at the time, they aren’t any long thanks to Sanders’s approach, Barnes said.
“Business does what it always does: it seeks safety and security and stability, and it came here to Atlanta and Georgia,” he said. “Because of Carl Sanders, this metropolitan area has 3 1/2 million people, and the metropolitan area of Birmingham, Ala., has 700,000.”
Gov. Nathan Deal, who has described Sanders as a mentor, spoke barely a minute.
“Greatness is history’s label of approval, and it is bestowed on very few,” he said. “As we remember the life of Gov. Carl Sanders, we are also laying history’s wreath of greatness at his feet.”
A political moderate, he chose not to fight court-ordered racial desegregation as neighboring governors did. As a result, he often said, Northern businesses considered Georgia a more friendly place to locate their factories and warehouses, helping the state to prosper and outpace surrounding states.
He appointed many blacks to positions within state government, and there were many blacks on hand at the memorial service to say their thanks and chat with the family afterward.
via Crowd turns out for Sanders memorial | The Augusta Chronicle.
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