US RIGHT WING CLAIMS SPIRIT OF MLK AT LINCOLN MEMORIAL RALLY
Tens of thousands descended on Washington today for one of the biggest culture clashes in decades one that pitted an almost exclusively white crowd against one that was predominantly African-American. Both claimed the legacy of Martin Luther King.
The biggest crowd was for a rightwing rally supported by the Fox Television host and author Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Tea Party activists, who gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his "I have a dream" speech 47 years ago to the day.
Beck estimated that the crowd, the biggest show of strength by Tea Party activists this year, numbered in the hundreds of thousands, many of whom had travelled long distances. He claimed he had been unaware when he organised the rally that it coincided with the King anniversary, but insisted that the civil rights leader was an inspiration for all Americans and not any one section of the community.
The other rally, held hours later, was a more traditional event, supported mainly by African-Americans, marching through Washington to mark the anniversary of King's speech. Many of those on the march accused Beck of hypocrisy and of stirring up the black community.
One of the marchers, Chicago student Brendan Yukins, 18, said of the Beck rally: "It is really insulting the Tea Party always makes a big deal of being open to everyone, but when you look at the crowd it is white, over-45s."
Beck, conscious that so many of these events are judged on the numbers of those attending, looked out on a crowd that stretched from the Lincoln Memorial all the way up the Mall to the Washington Memorial, and put the figure at more than 450,000.
Even if the final tally is lower, the crowd was still substantial and a tribute to his drawing power. The rally had no specific agenda, billing itself as "restoring honour" to the US and rekindling what Beck and other speakers saw as the spirit of the American Revolution family values, low taxation and cutting the federal decifit.
He told the crowd, in a speech peppered with references to God: "For too long, this country has wandered in darkness, and we have wandered in darkness in periods from the beginning.
"We have had moments of brilliance and moments of darkness. But this country has spent far too long worried about scars and thinking about the scars and concentrating on the scars. Today, we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished and the things that we can do tomorrow."
Palin, who received the biggest cheer of the day, was equally fuzzy: "We must not fundamentally transform America, as some would want. We must restore America and restore her honour."
With so few African-Americans in the crowd, Beck compensated by having African-American speakers present, including King's niece, Alveda, a conservative who has been a guest on his show. Beck and others also made frequent references to King, with the Fox presenter arguing that civil rights were, and are, a matter for all Americans and not just African-Americans and their liberal supporters.
Before the rally, Beck had appealed for supporters to leave banners at home in a move aimed at avoiding the slogans that appeared last year denigrating Barack Obama, leading to accusations that the Tea Party was racist. The crowd largely complied. There were plenty of T-shirts reflecting the mood, ranging from Obama's iconic Hope image, in which the president had been replaced by George Washington, to ones celebrating the US military "Special Ops: A mission from God" and army veterans "Freedom is not free: I paid for it."
Asked why there were virtually no African-Americans in the crowd, Robert Lemaster, 65, who had travelled from Ohio, opened his hands wide: "I don't know why others are not here." He denied the Tea Party was racist: "That is nonsense. I know lots of minorities who support the Tea Party. It is not about racism but issues such as taxation."
He saw no problem in holding the rally on King's anniversary. "Martin Luther King was an American. He belongs to America. Why would any American object to celebrating Martin Luther King?"
The counter-rally, billed as "reclaiming King", was led by the Rev Al Sharpton, and began at Dunbar high school, the first Washington DC school for black students. It ended near the Lincoln Memorial, close to the site of a proposed monument to King.
One of the marchers, Bomani Crumpton, 55, from Philadelphia, had no objection to Beck holding his rally, saying the Tea Party activists were entitled to free speech. "My objection is that Beck is being dishonest. I don't believe he did not know it was King's anniversary," Crumpton said.
He was equally sceptical about Beck's claims to be concerned about civil rights and condemned last year's Tea Party's posters "with degrading pictures of the president".
The biggest crowd was for a rightwing rally supported by the Fox Television host and author Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Tea Party activists, who gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his "I have a dream" speech 47 years ago to the day.
Beck estimated that the crowd, the biggest show of strength by Tea Party activists this year, numbered in the hundreds of thousands, many of whom had travelled long distances. He claimed he had been unaware when he organised the rally that it coincided with the King anniversary, but insisted that the civil rights leader was an inspiration for all Americans and not any one section of the community.
The other rally, held hours later, was a more traditional event, supported mainly by African-Americans, marching through Washington to mark the anniversary of King's speech. Many of those on the march accused Beck of hypocrisy and of stirring up the black community.
One of the marchers, Chicago student Brendan Yukins, 18, said of the Beck rally: "It is really insulting the Tea Party always makes a big deal of being open to everyone, but when you look at the crowd it is white, over-45s."
Beck, conscious that so many of these events are judged on the numbers of those attending, looked out on a crowd that stretched from the Lincoln Memorial all the way up the Mall to the Washington Memorial, and put the figure at more than 450,000.
Even if the final tally is lower, the crowd was still substantial and a tribute to his drawing power. The rally had no specific agenda, billing itself as "restoring honour" to the US and rekindling what Beck and other speakers saw as the spirit of the American Revolution family values, low taxation and cutting the federal decifit.
He told the crowd, in a speech peppered with references to God: "For too long, this country has wandered in darkness, and we have wandered in darkness in periods from the beginning.
"We have had moments of brilliance and moments of darkness. But this country has spent far too long worried about scars and thinking about the scars and concentrating on the scars. Today, we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished and the things that we can do tomorrow."
Palin, who received the biggest cheer of the day, was equally fuzzy: "We must not fundamentally transform America, as some would want. We must restore America and restore her honour."
With so few African-Americans in the crowd, Beck compensated by having African-American speakers present, including King's niece, Alveda, a conservative who has been a guest on his show. Beck and others also made frequent references to King, with the Fox presenter arguing that civil rights were, and are, a matter for all Americans and not just African-Americans and their liberal supporters.
Before the rally, Beck had appealed for supporters to leave banners at home in a move aimed at avoiding the slogans that appeared last year denigrating Barack Obama, leading to accusations that the Tea Party was racist. The crowd largely complied. There were plenty of T-shirts reflecting the mood, ranging from Obama's iconic Hope image, in which the president had been replaced by George Washington, to ones celebrating the US military "Special Ops: A mission from God" and army veterans "Freedom is not free: I paid for it."
Asked why there were virtually no African-Americans in the crowd, Robert Lemaster, 65, who had travelled from Ohio, opened his hands wide: "I don't know why others are not here." He denied the Tea Party was racist: "That is nonsense. I know lots of minorities who support the Tea Party. It is not about racism but issues such as taxation."
He saw no problem in holding the rally on King's anniversary. "Martin Luther King was an American. He belongs to America. Why would any American object to celebrating Martin Luther King?"
The counter-rally, billed as "reclaiming King", was led by the Rev Al Sharpton, and began at Dunbar high school, the first Washington DC school for black students. It ended near the Lincoln Memorial, close to the site of a proposed monument to King.
One of the marchers, Bomani Crumpton, 55, from Philadelphia, had no objection to Beck holding his rally, saying the Tea Party activists were entitled to free speech. "My objection is that Beck is being dishonest. I don't believe he did not know it was King's anniversary," Crumpton said.
He was equally sceptical about Beck's claims to be concerned about civil rights and condemned last year's Tea Party's posters "with degrading pictures of the president".
In the immortal words of Ludacris: HOW LOW CAN YOU GO???