“Something that is beyond man is happening,” said Beck, a commentator and radio host for Fox News. “America today begins to turn back to God.”
Civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, blasted Beck’s three-hour rally as exploiting King’s legacy and held their own rally and march nearby.
“I felt the same need to be here as the people did 47 years ago,” said Julie Kemp, 49, of Kettering. “It’s as a historical point in our nation as the civil rights movement was.”
Rob Scott, founder of the Dayton Tea Party, said roughly 1,000 people from the Dayton area attended the rally. He said the numbers show the country is at a crossroads with how its government is being run.
“Politicians in Washington are just spending and they are not listening to America,” Scott said. “They couldn’t help but hear us today.”
Officials do not make crowd estimates because they are unreliable and can be controversial, but event organizers put the number of attendees at 500,000.
Clarence B. Jones, who served as King’s personal attorney and his speechwriter, said he believes King would not be offended by Beck’s rally but “pleased and honored” that a diverse group of people would come together, almost five decades later, to discuss the future of America.
This story contains information from The Associated Press.
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