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Sharpton: Beck Rally Contradicts Dream of Equality

   VOA News 28 August 2010
   The  Reverend  Al  Sharpton,  front, addresses the media during a news
   conference  at the 101st annual NAACP convention as Rev. Jesse Jackson
   looks on, 14 Jul 2010 (file photo)

Photo: AP

   The  Reverend  Al  Sharpton,  front, addresses the media during a news
   conference  at the 101st annual NAACP convention as Rev. Jesse Jackson
   looks on, 14 Jul 2010 (file photo)

   Thousands  of  Americans at a second rally in the nation's capital are
   promising  to  continue  the fight of slain civil rights leader Martin
   Luther King, Jr.
   Civil  rights  leaders  and  their supporters have gathered at a local
   Washington  high  school  to  pay tribute to King's memory on the 47th
   anniversary of his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
   Participants also plan to march to the site of a planned Martin Luther
   King, Jr. memorial.
   The "Reclaim the Dream" rally was organized by African-American rights
   leader  Reverend  Al  Sharpton,  who  earlier criticized the competing
   "Restore Honor" rally that is going on at the same time.
   Sharpton  told cable station C-SPAN on Saturday that the other rally's
   anti-government  sentiment  contradicts the legacy of King, who fought
   to get the federal government to ensure equal rights for people of all
   races and backgrounds.
   Most  event  organizers have refused to comment on the rally organized
   by  broadcaster  Glenn Beck, but some attending the Sharpton rally say
   the Beck event is racist.
   Speakers  at  the  "Reclaim  the  Dream"  rally  are  to  include U.S.
   Education  Secretary  Arne  Duncan  and King's son, Martin Luther King
   III.
   Earlier  this  week, Martin Luther King III defended Beck's right  to
   hold  a  rally  on  the anniversary of his father's historic "I Have a
   Dream"  speech.   King  wrote  in the Washington Post that his father
   championed  free  speech.   But  he  also wrote that the civil rights
   leader "rejected hateful rhetoric and all forms of bigotry."

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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