The Reverend Al Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s Sharpton led a series of direct-action campaigns and crusades to fight racism in the criminal-justice system-from Howard Beach and Bensonhurst to Wappingers Falls and Los Angeles. As one writer said during that time, "Sharpton is literally reviving the Civil Rights Movement." In 1991, Sharpton formed the National Action Network. The NAN, formed to combat racial and civil rights violations, fights for progressive, people-based social policies by providing extensive voter education and registration campaigns, economic support for small community businesses and by confronting corporate racism.