in north carolina, "fusion politics" between the populist and republican parties led to a brief period of renewed republican and african-american political success in elections from 1894 to 1900, when white was elected to congress for two terms after serving in the state legislature. after the democratic-dominated state legislature passed a suffrage amendment that disenfranchised blacks in the state, white did not seek a third term. he moved permanently to washington, d.c., where he had a law practice and became a banker, moving again to philadelphia in 1906.