Glenn Beck, onservative talk show host, is facing some controversy for scheduling a rally at the site and on the day of an iconic 1963 civil rights demonstration.

He, Sarah Palin and other conservative stars will speak on Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, 47 years after Martin Luther King Jr delivered his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech.

Mr Beck claims that the rally is an apolitical tribute to the men and women in the military.

Civil rights leaders, however, say that Beck's message runs opposite to Dr King's.

"It's an affront to what the civil rights movement stood for," Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"We didn't do anything in anger and never tried to divide people. Glenn Beck is a very divisive force."

The march in 1963 was a turning point in the civil rights movement. Dr King's ”I Have a Dream”

speech at the Lincoln Memorial that day called for a united nation, free from racial discrimination. It is one of the most celebrated works of American oratory.

Beck is both a host on Fox News Channel and a prominent voice in the anti-establishment Tea Party movement. He accused President Barack Obama of racism last year, saying he had a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture".

He promoted the “Restoring Honor” rally on Saturday as a non-political tribute to American troops aimed at restoring "the values that founded this great nation".

He claims that when planning the rally in DC, he was not aware that Saturday August 28 would mark the anniversary of the 1963 march.

"It's not the date, it's the message," he said on his television show on Thursday.

"I've heard it over and over again in the media that because of this event, on the date of this event, I'm somehow or another hijacking Dr Martin Luther King's speech. I'm not big enough to do that. No-one is."

A counter-demonstration will be held by a coalition of civil rights groups, called “Reclaim the Dream” elsewhere in Washington's National Mall.