WASHINGTON (AP) — EDITOR'S NOTE: On May 17, 1954, a hushed crowd of spectators packed the Supreme Court, awaiting word on Brown v. Board of Education, a combination of five lawsuits brought by the NAACP's legal arm to challenge racial segregation in public schools. The high court decided unanimously that "separate but equal" education denied black children their constitutional right to equal protection under the law, effectively removing a cornerstone that propped up Jim Crow, or state-sanctioned segregation of the races. AP reporter Herb Altschull chronicled the court's decision and what it meant for segregation, which in 1954 permeated many aspects of American life.