Black history month is a time to remember the struggle and celebrate the accomplishments of African Americans in the United States. Here we’ve compiled ten fast facts to remember during Black History Month.

1. “The celebration of Black History Month began as “Negro History Week,” which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator and publisher. It became a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.”

2. “The earliest recorded protest against slavery was by the Quakers in 1688. Quaker Protests. Quakers, also known as “The Society of Friends,” have a long history of abolition. But it was four Pennsylvania Friends from Germantown who wrote the initial protest in the 17th century. They saw the slave trade as a grave injustice against their fellow man and used the Golden Rule to argue against such inhumane treatment; regardless of skin color, “we should do unto others as we would have done onto ourselves.””

3. “The date of February 12, 1909, was chosen for the NAACP’s inception because it also marked the 100th birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. It’s America’s oldest civil rights organization, as well as its largest.”

4. “Countries like the United Kingdom and the Netherlands celebrate Black History Month in October.”

5. “In 1787, slavery is made illegal in the Northwest Territory, but the U.S Constitution states that Congress may not ban the slave trade until 1808.”

6. “The 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution was adopted by the 38th Congress on February 1st. This amendment abolished slavery. It was approved in 1865.”

7. “The Transatlantic Slave Trade was underway from 1500-1866, shipping more than 12 million African slaves across the world. Of those slaves, only 10.7 million survived the dreaded Middle Passage. Over 400 years, the majority of slaves (4.9 million) found their way to Brazil where they suffered incredibly high mortality rates due to terrible working conditions. Brazil was also the last country to ban slavery in 1888.”

8. “Phillis Wheatley was only 12 when she became the first female African American author published.”

9. “The media made the Black Panthers notorious for their Afros, dark apparel, and willingness for armed self-defense, but their manifesto for change launched programs that benefited Black communities nationwide, like free dental care, breakfast for low-income children, even drama classes.”

10. “While Rosa Parks is credited with helping to spark the Civil Rights movement when she refused to give up her public bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955–inspiring the Montgomery Bus Boycott—the lesser-known Claudette Colvin was arrested nine months prior for not giving up her bus seat to white passengers.”