Red-black trees are binary search trees where each node is colored red or black. They provide O(log N) operations by ensuring that every path from root to leaf contains the same number of black nodes. They can be viewed as representations of 2-3-4 trees, where each black node corresponds to a node in the 2-3 tree and each red node is placed in the same node as its black parent. Inserting a new node may cause a "double red" violation, requiring restructuring by rotations or recoloring to maintain the red-black properties.