 Complete the following phrase:  In May 1961 a multiracial group of civil rights activists known as Freedom Riders prepared to enter North Carolina on intercity buses to ensure the desegregation of them and related transit facilities in the South. Sanford sought the advice of Thomas J. Pearsall, an attorney who had previously developed North Carolinas response to federally mandated school desegregation. Pearsall counselled Sanford to approach the matter quietly, informally and without public notice and be prepared to deploy the State Highway Patrol to meet mob violence. Under Sanfords orders, the Highway Patrol monitored the buses movements and guarded against potential violence from angry segregationist whites. Throughout his tenure Sanford would deploy state police at civil rights demonstrations to maintain order and deter violence, but he never used them to disperse demonstrators. He later said, It was up to us to keep the order and let them demonstrate, which was constitutional. It was unthinkable to put them in jail for that. He also expressed support for President Kennedys actions to 