Final answer:
The primary significance of the Brown v. Board of Education decision was the dismantling of the "separate but equal" precedent and the declaration that separate schools were inherently unequal.
Step-by-step explanation:
The primary significance of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 was the legal dismantling of the "separate but equal" precedent established by the Plessy decision. The court ruled that segregating children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even if the schools were separate but equal in other aspects, violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. This ruling declared that separate schools were inherently unequal, and it marked a major milestone in the civil rights movement, laying the groundwork for the desegregation of public schools across the United States.