Beck rally to draw thousands to D.C.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Conservative activists are converging on Washington for a rally on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic march, a Tea Party official said.

The National Park Service is preparing for a crowd of about 100,000 at the rally Saturday, ABC News reported.

Tea Party groups are mobilizing for the rally, although it is not billed as an official event of the movement. Jamie Radtke, founder of the Federation of Virginia Tea Party Patriots, predicted a large turnout based on the number of buses that local Tea Party organizers have chartered.

Organizer Glenn Beck, the radio and television host, calls the rally non-political, but his fellow keynote speaker will be former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. They will speak from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" address.

Beck says the event, "Restoring Honor," is not intended to rally voters to the polls. No signs are allowed, and no current elected officials will speak, The Washington Post reported.

Some black leaders have denounced the march as "hijacking (King's) legacy." But the civil rights leader's niece, Alveda King, will address the rally.

"Uncle Martin's legacy is big enough to go around," she wrote in The Christian Science Monitor.

Al Sharpton's National Action Network is holding its annual "Reclaim the Dream" commemoration the same day.