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→Mayor Hartsfield
===1945 to present===
===1945 to present===
=====Mayor Hartsfield=====
=====Mayor Hartsfield=====
William Hartsfield (1890-1971) came from a working class background and never attended college; we educated himself at the Atlanta Public Library.<ref> See [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-599&hl=y ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (2007)]</ref> He became a lawyer and was elected to the city council in 1923, where he promoted Atlanta as the logical hub of aviation in the South. He negotiated the purchase of land for a municipal airport and won federal designation of Atlanta as a terminal and transfer point on the first New York-Miami and Chicago-Jacksonville air routes. He was elected mayor in 1936, serving, with one brief interruption, until 1961.
William Hartsfield (1890-1971) came from a working class background and never attended college; instead he educated himself at the Atlanta Public Library.<ref> See [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-599&hl=y ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (2007)]</ref> He became a lawyer and was elected to the city council in 1923, where he promoted Atlanta as the logical hub of aviation in the South. He negotiated the purchase of land for a municipal airport and won federal designation of Atlanta as a terminal and transfer point on the first New York-Miami and Chicago-Jacksonville air routes. He was elected mayor in 1936, serving, with one brief interruption, until 1961.
Hartsfield's goal was to make Atlanta the dominant southern city. With support from top business leaders he initiated a vast program of infrastructure improvements while showing a budget surplus every year. By 1959, Atlanta's metropolitan population had surpassed one million, and Hartsfield had tripled the territorial limits of the city from 35 to 118 square miles through a controversial annexation enacted by the state legislature over the opposition of suburban homeowners who objected to paying city taxes.
Hartsfield's goal was to make Atlanta the dominant southern city. With support from top business leaders he initiated a vast program of infrastructure improvements while showing a budget surplus every year. By 1959, Atlanta's metropolitan population had surpassed one million, and Hartsfield had tripled the territorial limits of the city from 35 to 118 square miles through a controversial annexation enacted by the state legislature over the opposition of suburban homeowners who objected to paying city taxes.