american civil war, the reconstruction era state legislature established the first public schools for black children in the state. at welches creek in 1870, white met the teacher david p. allen, who encouraged him. allen moved to lumberton, where he established the whitin normal school. white studied academic courses there for a couple of years, including latin, and boarded with allen and his family. he saved money by running the family farm for a year for his father. wiley white left the family for washington, d.c., in 1872 and worked for nearly two decades as a laborer at the treasury department.