Among the first residents in Palm Beach County were African Americans, many of whom were former slaves or immediate descendants of former slaves who had escaped to the State of Florida from slave plantations located in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. Runaway African slaves started coming to what was then named Spanish Florida in the late 17th century and they found refuge among the Seminole Native Americans.
The African American population provided significant labor for the building of the county, its hotels, houses and Flagler's railroad. Palm Beach County was among the last school districts in the nation to integrate, in 1971.