Dr. King's neice, Alveeda King, took to the stage in an effort to deflect the criticism some civil rights leaders had leveled against Beck’s choice of the historic date for his rally.

“We know how Uncle Martin labored from a cramped, roach-infested jail cell, writing on the margins of an old newspaper the beginnings of his famous Letter From A Birmingham Jail,” she said. “It was there, in the darkest of times, that he concentrated not on his surroundings, but his service.”