Black History Month: Five major events and figures

Black History Month is the annual celebration of the struggles, achievements and overall contribution African-Americans have made to the US.

- Michail Vafeiadis, Contributor

2. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is one of the first civil rights organizations in the US. It was formed in response to race riots in Springfield, Illinois. The NAACP was created on February 12, 1909, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.

Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate radical hatred and racial discrimination," according to its official website.

Through the years, it initiated and won various legal battles, such as the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision where the “Supreme Court held that segregation in public education violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”