One of the most controversial and outspoken figures of America's Right is under fire today for holding a rally in the exact spot where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr made his stirring 'I Have a Dream' speech - on the anniversary of the iconic event.
Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, infamous in the U.S. for his attacks on Barack Obama, insisted today that it was just a coincidence that his 'Restoring Honor' rally was being held on the 47th anniversary of Dr King's speech.
But he drew the ire of civil rights leaders, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, as up to 100,000 conservative members of the Tea Party movement - including Sarah Palin - descended on Washington, DC today.
'For too long, this country has wandered in darkness': Fox News commentator Glenn Beck at a Tea Party rally to pay respect to America's troops in Washington, DC today
Beck, pacing back and forth on the marble steps, said he was humbled by the size of the crowd, which stretched along the Washington Mall's long reflecting pool nearly all the way to the Washington Monument.
'Something beyond imagination is happening,' he said. 'America today begins to turn back to God.
'For too long, this country has wandered in darkness,' he added.
He was joined on stage by Sarah Palin, a conservative favourite and potential 2012 presidential candidate.
Neither Beck nor Palin made overtly political comments. Beck is known for his extreme views and statements. He has described Mr Obama, the first black U.S. president, as a racist.
Palin, greeted by chants of 'USA, USA, USA' from many in the crowd, told the gathering, 'It is so humbling to get to be here with you today, patriots. You who are motivated and engaged ... and knowing never to retreat.'
Palin likened the rally participants to the civil rights activists who came to the National Mall to hear King's historic speech, which came at a crucial moment in the civil rights struggle.
She said the same spirit that helped civil rights activists overcome oppression, discrimination and violence would help this group as well.
'We are worried about what we face. Sometimes, our challenges seem insurmountable,' Palin said. 'Look around you. You're not alone.'
The crowd - organizers had a permit for 300,000 - was vast, with people standing shoulder to shoulder across large expanses of the Mall.
The National Park Service stopped doing crowd counts in 1997 after the agency was accused of underestimating numbers for the 1995 Million Man March.
Civil rights leaders protested the event and scheduled a 3-mile plus march from a high school to the site of a planned King memorial near the Tidal Basin and not far from Beck's gathering.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's delegate to Congress, said she remembers being at King's march on Washington, which she said prompted change and ended segregation in public places.
'Glenn Beck's march will change nothing. But you can't blame Glenn Beck for his March-on-Washington envy,' she said.
Beck has said he did not intend to choose the King anniversary for his rally but had since decided it was 'divine providence'.
Beck and other organizers say the aim is to pay tribute to America's military personnel and others 'who embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honour'.
In a taped presentation mixed in with his live remarks, Beck invoked King's message and said 'the fight for freedom was not easy'.
He repeatedly injected religion into the event and urged rally participants to rely on faith to help the U.S. recover from an economic recession that has given the country stubbornly high unemployment
'Faith is in short supply,' Beck said. 'To restore America, we must restore ourselves.'
Two months before nationwide Congressional elections, which could cost President Barack Obama's Democrats their majority in the House of Representatives and perhaps the Senate as well, Beck's rally becomes only the latest symptom of rampant political partisanship that is splitting the country and drowning out voices of moderation.
Beck has given voice to those angry and frustrated with Obama and other Democrats this election year, especially members of the tea party movement - a loose knit coalition of conservative and libertarian activists who oppose taxes and what they perceive as government intrusion in their lives.
Many in the crowd watched the proceedings on large television screens. On the edges of the Mall, vendors sold 'Don't Tread on Me' flags, popular with tea party activists.
Other activists distributed fliers urging voters 'dump Obama'. The pamphlet included a picture of the president with a Hitler-style moustache.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, leading the civil rights march and rally, mocked the Beck production.
'The folks who used to criticize us for marching are trying to have a march themselves,' he said.
'We come because the dream has not been achieved. We've made a lot of progress. But we still have a long way to go.'
He said he wasn't seeking a confrontation with those at the Beck rally.
'We wouldn't disgrace today by allowing you to provoke us,' he said in remarks directed at the Beck followers.
'If people start heckling, smile at them,' he told fellow marchers.
People began filling up the space between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument early in the day, many waving American flags.
Beck's own Fox News colleague, Greta Van Susteren, said he should move his event. She said he should do it for sensitivity reasons, much as both she and Beck argue that an Islamic Center should not be built near the site of the World Trade Center, where terrorists struck in 2001.
'It does not help the country on so many fronts if we poke a stick in eyes,' Van Susteren wrote on her blog.
Historic? U.S. Tea Party activists and other conservatives gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall for the rally today
Iconic moment: Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' address in 1963 is seen as a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. The powerful speech, one of the most celebrated in American oratory, imagined a day when the country would be free of racial discrimination
Tea Party darling: Excited conservatives take pictures of Sarah Palin as she speaks at the rally today
Time to wake up: Civil rights leaders compare Dr King to Mr Beck as they also gather on the National Mall today to commemorate his historic fight for equality
Flashpoint: Two Tea Partiers hold a flag commemorating the 9/11 attacks at the rally today
Protest: Reverend Al Sharpton (centre) has strongly criticised Glenn Beck's aims to 'reclaim the civil rights movement'
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