By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — He may not have been invited, but Harlem Reverend Al Sharpton crashed one controversial tea party.
As Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and tens of thousands of 'tea party' activists rallied in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Sharpton held an alternative rally on Saturday.
Sharpton's rally, which included education secretary Arne Duncan and Martin Luther King III, protested Beck's use of the imagery of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famed "I Have a Dream" speech, and tea party comparisons to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Beck billed his rally as one that honored Dr. King's dream.
But Sharpton said it was anything but the same message Dr. King spread, calling it offensive.
"They have a right to rally," he told reporters on Friday. "But what they don't have the right do is distort what Dr. King's dream was about."
Sharpton lead his group from a local high school to a spot where construction has begun for a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.
Meanwhile, Beck declared his rally a success, bragging that more than 400,000 people attended. Multiple news estimates put the number in tens of thousands.
Beck, a conservative Fox News personality, vowed "today America begins turns back to God," according to multiple reports.
Palin told the crowd that she was there as a mother of a soldier and asked the crowd to remember the troops and the people that died in the 9/11 attacks.
The two groups reportedly met during the rallies, the AP reported. Beck's supporters urged Sharpton to "go to church" while Sharpton's supporters chanted "don't drink tea."
Much like Dr. King suggested decades ago, Sharpton told his supporters to stay peaceful.
"If people start heckling," Sharpton said according to the AP, "smile at them."
