Editing Carl Sanders (section)

=== Executive actions ===
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.<ref name= davis/>{{sfn|Lauth|2021|p=25}} He worked with Atlanta Mayor [[Ivan Allen Jr.]] to bring [[professional sports]] teams to the capital city,<ref name= cookNG/> and in 1963 he recruited a friend, [[Rankin M. Smith Sr.]], to fund the creation of the [[Atlanta Falcons]] football team.<ref name= davis/>

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."{{sfn|Cook|1988|p=179}} He regarded both white reactionaries and black civil rights activists as politically extreme.{{sfn|Cook|1988|pp=179–180}} 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."{{sfn|Cook|1988|p=179}} 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.{{sfn|Cook|1988|p=179}} He criticized rioters and testified to Congress against the passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], arguing it violated property rights.{{sfn|Cook|1988|p=180}}