William Berry Hartsfield Sr. (March 1, 1890 – February 22, 1971), was an American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

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 Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

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 An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

seat. He served two terms in the

Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. ...

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 o ...

in January 1937. Upon taking office, the city was $3 million in debt, due to the Great Depression. Hartsfield quickly turned around the city's finances, but lost re-election in 1940. The man who defeated Hartsfield, Roy LeCraw, served just one year as mayor, before being drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. 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 An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

. "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 ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

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 Lake Lanier (officially Lake Sidney Lanier) is a reservoir in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956, and is also fed by the waters of the Chestatee Ri ...

for the Atlanta metropolitan area. Hartsfield received an honorary degree in Doctor of Laws from

Oglethorpe University Oglethorpe University is a private college in Brookhaven, Georgia. It was chartered in 1835 and named in honor of General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia. History Oglethorpe University was chartered in 1834 in Mid ...

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 Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

struggles of the 1950s. In 1957, he won election to his last term as mayor by defeating the staunch segregationist and future

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Lester Maddox Lester Garfield Maddox Sr. (September 30, 1915 – June 25, 2003) was an American politician who served as the 75th governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1967 to 1971. A populist Democrat, Maddox came to prominence as a staunch segregatio ...

. 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 White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

suburbs, fearing that Atlanta's "

Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

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 Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

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., a

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

that became a popular attraction at

Zoo Atlanta Zoo Atlanta (sometimes referred as Atlanta Zoo) is an Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited zoological park in Atlanta, Georgia. The current president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta is Raymond B. King. History Zoo Atlanta was founded in ...

for decades, was named for Hartsfield.

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport , also known as Atlanta Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport, Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield, Hartsfield–Jackson and, formerly, as the Atlanta Municipal Airport, is the primary internatio ...

is named in Hartsfield's honor as well as a later mayor,

Maynard Jackson Maynard Holbrook Jackson Jr. (March 23, 1938 – June 23, 2003) was an American politician and attorney from Georgia. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected in 1973 at the age of 35 as the first black mayor of Atlanta, Georgia and of ...

, who led the modernization of the airport in the 1970s.

References

*''Charlie Brown Remembers Atlanta'' (1982), Charles M. Brown, R. L. Bryan Company *Williams, Louis. 2002. "William B. Hartsfield (1890-1971)". ''New Georgia Encyclopedia''. Georgia Humanities Council

External links