The 1940 census profiled 134,374 adult, wage-earning black males. Fully one-third still worked the land, although precious few owned the land they worked. Black females faced even more daunting occupational prospects. Of Florida's 85,464 black female wage earners, two-thirds were employed as maids, laundresses, or service workers. Few blacks were found in the professional ranks.
Race cut deeply into a separated and very unequal education system.
Because the State of Florida supplied little of the cost of local public education, enormous differences existed from county to county or even within counties. A completely segregated system of higher education, under-funded even at white institutions, added further barriers for ambitious black citizens. White supremacy stood at the very center of Florida's political economy. No blacks voted in the Democratic white primary or served on a jury. If the state's social relations remained regressive and deeply mired in the past, its economy, as measured by the early days of the 1940s, was charting a new course.