How does crowd react when the demonstrators bow their heads in prayer?

Anne Moody's become deeply involved in a campaign by the NAACP to stage sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Jackson. One of the sit-ins turns particularly violent, as Anne and a number of other civil rights activists are attacked by a baying mob of white supremacists.
The atmosphere was already tense when Anne entered Woolworth's with students from the historically black Tougaloo College. But when a mob of white students shows up, tensions rise to boiling point. They start making threats of violence, but the response from the activists is entirely non-violent. They bow their heads in prayer, drawing upon their faith for strength and spiritual sustenance at such a dangerous moment. At that moment, all hell breaks loose. That's when the mob begins to attack the civil rights activists, while ninety Jackson police officers outside watch through the window, doing absolutely nothing to stop the violence.