'One Nation' rally offers 'antidote' to Tea Party

Thousands of people from dozens of liberal groups across the USA are marching on the National Mall today as "one nation," saying they want to call attention to the needs of working-class Americans, USA TODAY staffers Marisol Bello, Oren Dorell and Marisa Kendall report.

One Nation Working Together, the coalition organizing the event, wants the powers of Washington to create jobs and help those without them, end racial profiling and other discrimination in the criminal justice system, and push for immigration changes and quality, affordable education.

• Photos: "One Nation" rally in D.C. underway
• Watch the rally live

Updated at 4:33: The rally apparently just ended.

Updated at 4:20 p.m.: United Auto Workers chief Bob King told the crowd that "those who want to divide us tell us that we cannot win." King said the "voices of division" try to divide us by race, gender, age and other ways. "By contrast, those marching here today are leading us on a path of community ... of optimism."

Updated at 3:52 p.m.: Marisa reported that people are beginning to clear out of the Mall area, though speeches continued. Tyrone Gardner, 50, came from Goldsboro, N.C., because of health care, jobs and education -- and was in no hurry to leave. "There's just so many discriminatory practices in this country, it's just ridiculous," he said. Gardner said his favorite part of the rally was the way in which such a diverse group of people came out and interacted so peacefully. "God didn't make nothing the same," he said. "He made everybody diverse."

Updated at 3:25 p.m.: The Rev. Jesse Jackson encouraged people to vote. And he joined other speakers before him in lobbying for jobs. "We globalized capital without globalizing workers' rights," he said. "Today we march, tomorrow we vote." He started a chant of "Keep hope alive."

Updated at 3:15 p.m.: Erin Geiger, 31, a teacher from Long Island, N.Y., told Marisa she has enjoyed most of the speakers so far, but is not a big fan of the religious undertones many employed. "I could do without the religion," she said. Geiger was impressed with the turnout. "I think it's great," she said. "A lot of my fellow educators are here. I'm impressed by the amount of youth here as well."

"Updated at 3:06 p.m.: Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, took a moment to speak with Oren. She talked about "huge resistance" to changes voted for in 2008. "Corporations are preying on our fears and using this moment to expand their profit margins," she told Oren. "This is the first recession where corporate margins are growing while wages are going down. We're saying, 'No more.' "

Updated at 2:42 p.m.: NAACP leader Ben Jealous tells the crowd the strongest words in the country are "American, family, future." He says perseverance is the key to "our national destiny, to move ever forward, never backwards." He says too many police officers, teachers and others are losing their jobs. "Let us invest less and less in the (wealthiest) 1% and more and more in jobs and schools for the other 99%."

Updated at 2:19 p.m.: Sirius XM radio personality Joe Madison tells crowd the turnout is larger than the one drawn by conservative Fox News commentator Glenn Beck five weeks ago.

Updated at 2:13 p.m.: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka just spoke. "If we are going to build our dreams, turn them into reality, we have to be bold," he says. He presses for better schools and better jobs. "We believe in America. ... Our best days are ahead of us, not behind us."

Updated at 1:47 p.m.: While rapper and beat poet Black Ice reads his piece about the plight of impoverished Americans, Marisa reports that people are stretched out on the grass on the outskirts of the crowd, basking in the sun. Someone in a Grim Reaper costume holds a sign that reads: "Death thanks the G.O.P. for its stance on health care reform. You guys sure make my job easy." Six men in chains and prison outfits protest the criminalization of immigration.

Updated at 1:28 p.m.: Marc Morial, head of the Urban League, spoke to the crowd. "We march today because … too many people are hurting. Without good jobs to support our families, our nation cannot recover." Morial called for "a targeted jobs program to create 3 million jobs to build our streets and rebuild our cities. … We are for economic empowerment for all. We are one nation working together."

Updated at 12:55 p.m.: Our Marisa Kendall reports that the Urban Nation H.I.P.-H.O.P. Choir of Washington, D.C., has fired up the crowd with a rendition of Celebration. Marisa says the area between the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial is almost filled. Groups of family members and political organizations are setting up little camps with blankets, folding chairs and sandwiches.

Marilyn Robinson, 55, from Nashville, is dancing. Wearing a shirt with Obama's face on it, Robinson tells Marisa she is here to give President Obama "cover" against those who criticize him. "We're here for him," she says. "We believe he's on point."

Updated at 12:42 p.m.: Oren reports that the crowd is growing fast – filling the open space around the Lincoln Memorial halfway down the Reflecting Pool area toward the World War II Memorial.

Karolina Bodner, a retired teacher from Barrington, N.H., told Oren she is at the rally because "most people I know are getting Social Security checks from the government and getting disability checks from the government and driving on roads that are built and repaired by the government. I don't know who the people are that are saying, 'Get rid of all that.' "

John Gardner, 60, from Pittsburgh, is also a retired schoolteacher. He is carrying a sign that says "Amnesiacs vote Republican. Those who remember vote Democrat." He told Oren he's on the Mall because he thinks Democrats are being blamed for the mistakes they inherited from Republicans.

Updated at 12:08 p.m.: Crystal Sutphin, 20, came from Manassas, Va., saying she is rallying for gay and lesbian equality. She hopes the rally will draw 10,000 people. "I hope it's crazy," she told USA TODAY's Marisa Kendall. "The crazier the better. It will bring (more) attention."

Updated at 11:09 a.m.: Oren Dorell, at the rally, reports that busloads of people are streaming toward the Lincoln Memorial carrying signs such as "jobs, justice and education" and "fund jobs, not war."

Among the demonstrators is Mohamed Jallow, 56, from Pawtucket, R.I. A native of Gambia, he said this is his first political rally. He told Oren that it was great to hear people having frank, open discussions. In Gambia, he said, "they have their secret people who come and pick you up" if you speak your mind.

Cheryl Albright, a community health advocate from West Warwick, R.I, said she was "fired up" by the turnout. "Look at the diversity," she said. "This is not like the Tea Party. They call themselves the real America. We're the real America, too."

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Here is a bit more background on the event.

The coalition consists of civil and human rights groups, unions, immigration advocates, gay-rights groups and churches.

Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, says the march will showcase working Americans, particularly minorities, whose voices have gone unheard in a political debate that he says has focused on the Tea Party and opinions of extreme commentators.

"We're not an alternative to the Tea Party. We want to be an antidote," Jealous says. "We want to make the mainstream of the country visible to itself."

The march comes five weeks after a high-profile rally by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Beck also said his rally represented America's working and middle classes.

Saturday's rally is also an effort to re-energize voters who elected President Obama two years ago. Polls show Democrats are in danger of losing their majority in the House in November.