Carl E. Sanders, who as a young Democratic governor of Georgia in the mid-1960s helped spur Atlanta’s growth while taking what for a white politician in the South were progressive stances on race and segregation, earning him a reputation as an early leader of the “New South,” died on Sunday in Atlanta. He was 89.

The cause was complications after a fall at his home on Friday, according to his law firm, Troutman Sanders, where he was chairman emeritus.

Mr. Sanders may not be remembered as well as some other Southern governors of the civil rights era, because he sought to avoid racial conflict rather than gain from it. During his single term, from 1963 to 1967 — Georgia governors could not serve consecutive terms in those days — he spent liberally on education, including developing an expansive community and junior college system; helped Atlanta lure two major professional sports teams, the Falcons in football and the Braves in baseball; and tried, with some success, to promote Georgia as a region of relative calm amid the storms of the South.

To further that image, he was cautious in navigating the racial divide. When he ran for governor in 1962, he steered clear of denouncing segregation outright, but in office, he declined to challenge federal laws that banned it. He tried to minimize race as a political issue, criticizing what he called “agitators” on both sides of the issue — specifying white supremacists and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.