Yet a significant group came to the Common to protest Palin’s message.

“I came here to show my displeasure with the Tea Party movement, which is basically racist,” said Joan Quigley, a resident of Stoughton, Mass.

One anti-Palin group hosted near the entrance of Boston Common an alternative gathering called “the real Boston tea party,” at which tea and cookies were served.

“It started as a joke,” said Kathleen Toomey, who organized the gathering. “But then we thought what better way to show that the Tea Party movement doesn’t speak for every American than to have a nice, polite tea party?”

Yesterday’s rally was part of the “Tea Party Express,” a national bus tour that organizes “Tea Party” rallies. The tour started in Nevada in March and ends in Washington D.C. today.

—Staff writer Sofia E. Groopman can be reached at segroopm@fas.harvard.edu.