William Berry Hartsfield Sr. (March 1, 1890 – February 22, 1971), was an American politician who served as the 49th and 51st Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. His tenure extended from 1937 to 1941 and again from 1942 to 1962, making him the longest-serving mayor of his native Atlanta, Georgia.

Early career

Hartsfield worked as a clerk while reading law for the law firm of Rosser, Brandon, Slaton & Phillips beginning in 1916. Hartsfield entered politics in 1922 by winning a city alderman seat. He served two terms in the Georgia House of Representatives during the 1930s.

Mayor of Atlanta

William B. Hartsfield was first elected

Mayor of Atlanta Here is a list of mayors of Atlanta, Georgia. The mayor is the highest elected official in Atlanta. Since its incorporation in 1847, the city has had 61 mayors. The current mayor is Andre Dickens who was elected in the 2021 election and took of ...

in January 1937. Upon taking office, the city was $3 million in debt, due to the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Hartsfield quickly turned around the city's finances, but lost re-election in 1940. The man who defeated Hartsfield,

Roy LeCraw Roy LeCraw (May 1, 1895 – February 21, 1985) served part of one term as the 50th Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia before resigning to join the U.S. Army at the beginning of World War II. He was a self-confident insurance man and an officer in ...

, served just one year as mayor, before being drafted into the United States Army. Hartsfield won election in 1941, and remained in office until 1961. Biographer Harold Martin described Hartsfield as "a man fanatically addicted to the media." By the mid-1950s, he owned eight radios, three television sets, a combination radio-phonograph, a high-fidelity record player, a

wire recorder Wire recording or magnetic wire recording was the first magnetic recording technology, an analog type of audio storage in which a magnetic recording is made on a thin steel wire. The first crude magnetic recorder was invented in 1898 by Valde ...

, and a tape recorder. "This way," Hartsfield told an interviewer, "I can keep up all the time with what's going on in Atlanta and all the world. I tell people I'm an electronic mayor. Actually, I'm just a gadget bug." William Hartsfield Andrew Jarvis 1958

In an obituary for him, the New York Times credited Hartsfield with developing Atlanta into a national aviation center. He was lauded by the Upper Chattahoochee Development Association in 1957 for his work in promoting the

Buford Dam Buford Dam is a dam in Buford, Georgia which is located at the southern end of Lake Lanier, a reservoir formed by the construction of the dam in 1956. The dam itself is managed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The dam is made of ...

. The dam helped create a source of water, Lake Lanier for the Atlanta metropolitan area. Hartsfield received an honorary degree in Doctor of Laws from Oglethorpe University in 1961.

Race

The New York Times called Hartsfield a "racial moderate," highlighting his slogan "Atlanta is a city too busy to hate," which he often repeated during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s. In 1957, he won election to his last term as mayor by defeating the staunch segregationist and future Governor Lester Maddox. Before Christmas 1955, Hartsfield ordered Atlanta's city golf courses be opened to Black golfers. Throughout much of the 1940s, Hartsfield pushed for Atlanta to

annex Annex or Annexe refers to a building joined to or associated with a main building, providing additional space or accommodations. It may also refer to: Places * The Annex, a neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada * The Annex (New H ...

a number of predominantly white

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

s, fearing that Atlanta's " Negro population is growing by leaps and bounds," resulting in the loss of "white territory inside Atlanta," and hoped that the inclusion of these suburbs would prevent the city's black population from becoming a "potent political force in Atlanta." While residents of these suburbs rejected annexation in a 1947 referendum, legislation was passed which annexed these communities in 1952, tripling Atlanta's area, and adding 100,000 new residents to the city.

Legacy

Willie B. Willie B. (C. 1957 - February 2, 2000) was a western lowland gorilla who lived at the Zoo of Atlanta for 39 years, from 1961 until his death on February 2, 2000. He was named after the former mayor of Atlanta, William Berry Hartsfield. Willi ...

, a gorilla that became a popular attraction at Zoo Atlanta for decades, was named for Hartsfield. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport is named in Hartsfield's honor as well as a later mayor, Maynard Jackson, who led the modernization of the airport in the 1970s.

References

*''Charlie Brown Remembers Atlanta'' (1982),

Charles M. Brown Charles Manley Brown Jr. (November 20, 1902 – 19 May 1995) was a long-time U.S. politician in Atlanta, sometimes called Charlie Brown. Biography Charlie Brown was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the third child and second son of storekeeper Charl ...

, R. L. Bryan Company *Williams, Louis. 2002. "William B. Hartsfield (1890-1971)". ''New Georgia Encyclopedia''. Georgia Humanities Council

External links