47 Facts About Carl Sanders

Carl Sanders was born on May 15,1925, in Augusta, Georgia, United States to a middle class family.

Carl Sanders was made an alternate appointee to the United States Military Academy, but when the primary appointee claimed the spot Sanders accepted a football scholarship and enrolled at the University of Georgia in 1942.

Carl Sanders played as a left-handed quarterback on the freshman football team.

Carl Sanders was commissioned as a lieutenant and piloted B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft.

Carl Sanders named his own bomber "Georgia Peach", but was never deployed overseas.

Carl Sanders studied law, passing the bar examination in early 1947 and finishing his courses in December.

Carl Sanders played with the Georgia Bulldogs and went to the Oil Bowl.

Carl Sanders was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity, the Phi Kappa Literary Society, and the school debate team.

Carl Sanders devoted a significant amount of time to practice early on to pay off medical debt after his wife fell ill.

Carl Sanders garnered an interest in politics from his father, who had served on the Richmond County Board of Commissioners.

In 1954, Carl Sanders won a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives, successfully defeating a "Cracker Party" candidate.

Carl Sanders was re-elected in 1958 and 1960, making him the only person to ever serve three consecutive terms from a multi-county Georgia senatorial constituency while the rotation agreements were in use.

In 1958 Carl Sanders chaired a Senate committee which investigated potential corruption in the Rural Roads Authority during Governor Marvin Griffin's tenure.

Carl Sanders opposed a proposal to make the school issue subject to a statewide referendum.

Carl Sanders decided to make a bid for higher office in 1962.

Carl E Sanders suspected that the other man had been planted to confuse voters and spoil his chances by another candidate, Peter Zack Geer.

Carl 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.

Carl Sanders attacked Sanders as too young for the governorship and not committed enough to defending segregation.

Carl Sanders supported segregation but felt it was useless to oppose federal integration orders.

Carl Sanders accused the former governor of having prior knowledge of the rally and of bringing Klansmen into Georgia.

Carl Sanders accused Griffin of having run a corrupt administration in his previous term.

Carl 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.

Carl 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.

Carl Sanders criticized rioters and testified to Congress against the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing it violated property rights.

Carl Sanders was one of the last governors to be able to exercise this amount of authority over the legislature.

Carl Sanders 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.

Carl Sanders asked the legislature to appropriate funds for airport construction to attract industry to outlying communities.

The General Assembly had only four days to respond before its session was scheduled for adjournment, but Carl Sanders urged it to redraw the districts.

Shortly after winning election, Sanders visited President of the United States John F Kennedy.

Carl Sanders was generally supportive of the president's administration and used his New Frontier rhetoric.

In 1964 Carl 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.

Under the term limit law then in effect, Carl Sanders was ineligible to run for re-election in 1966.

Carl Sanders left office at the peak of his popularity and turned down several offers for federal government positions from President Johnson.

Carl Sanders was initially favored by most political observers as the candidate most likely to win.

Carl Sanders regularly claimed without basis that Sanders had used his time in office to enrich himself.

Furthermore, while his television advertisements showed him as a man of success while jogging, boating, and flying, Carter's ads focused on his farming background and suggested that Carl Sanders was the candidate of the "big-money boys".

Carter's campaign anonymously distributed a photo of Carl Sanders getting doused with a bottle of champagne by a black Atlanta Hawks basketball player celebrating a victory at a game.

The photo communicated several potentially damaging messages about Carl Sanders, including his wealth, an association with alcohol and a personal connection with a black person.

Carl Sanders received 93 percent of the black vote and the support of his erstwhile backers, but Carter won overwhelmingly in rural areas.

Carl Sanders felt guilty about the tactics he had employed, and after his win he called Sanders to apologize for attacking his character.

Carl Sanders remained bitter about the 1970 campaign, and later said of Carter, "He is not proud of that election, and he shouldn't be proud of it," though he thought Carter made "more of a class distinction than a race distinction" in the campaign.

Carl Sanders never pursued public office after his loss but remained an active fundraiser for Democratic candidates.

Carl Sanders served as the finance chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party during George Busbee's gubernatorial tenure.

Carl Sanders became chairman of First Georgia Bank in 1973.

Carl Sanders served as chairman of the law firm for thirty years, and in 2006 became its chairman emeritus.

At the time of his death, Troutman Carl Sanders had grown to include 600 lawyers.

Carl Sanders died in Atlanta on November 16,2014, at the age of 89, after a fall at his home.