Changes

High priority went to the airport, through improvements in runways, lighting, and approaches. By 1950 Atlanta had emerged as the hub of air transportation in the Southeast, a crucial factor in the city's simultaneous dominance of the commerce and finance of the region. As chairman of the airport committee of the American Municipal Association, Hartsfield won support from the Eisenhower administration for a major federal program of assistance to airports.

High priority went to the airport, through improvements in runways, lighting, and approaches. By 1950 Atlanta had emerged as the hub of air transportation in the Southeast, a crucial factor in the city's simultaneous dominance of the commerce and finance of the region. As chairman of the airport committee of the American Municipal Association, Hartsfield won support from the Eisenhower administration for a major federal program of assistance to airports.

Hartsfield and the business leaders wanted no racial troubles, so they approved of steady advances in black rights. Atlanta escaped the turmoil that characterized the civil rights era elsewhere. When the U.S. Supreme Court declared in 1944 that black voters could no longer be excluded from Democratic primaries, Hartsfield began to court the black leadership of his city. African Americans voters became an important element of his coalition, along with upscale whites and business leaders. He appointed Atlanta's first black police officers in 1948, ended segregation on buses and trolleys in 1957, and presided over the integration of city schools in 1961. Shortly after his death in 1971 his beloved Atlanta Municipal Airport, now one of the busiest in the world, was renamed the William Berry Hartsfield International Airport; it is now called the [[Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport]].<ref> See Harold H. Martin, ''William Berry Hartsfield: Mayor of Atlanta'' (1978)</ref>

Hartsfield and the business leaders wanted no racial troubles, so they approved of steady advances in black rights. Atlanta escaped the turmoil that characterized the civil rights era elsewhere. When the U.S. Supreme Court declared in 1944 that black voters could no longer be excluded from Democratic primaries, Hartsfield began to court the black leadership of his city. African Americans voters became an important element of his coalition, along with upscale whites and business leaders. He appointed Atlanta's first black police officers in 1948, ended segregation on buses and trolleys in 1957, and presided over the integration of city schools in 1961. Shortly after his death in 1971 his beloved Atlanta Municipal Airport, now one of the busiest in the world, was renamed the William Berry Hartsfield International Airport; it is now called the [[Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport]].<ref> See Harold H. Martin, ''William Berry Hartsfield: Mayor of Atlanta'' (1978)</ref>