[2][3] White became involved in local Democratic politics and unsuccessfully ran for Red Bank Borough Council in 1933, losing by thirteen votes.

She defeated her Republican opponent, Stanley O. Wilkins, and was sworn in on January 1, 1951 as Red Bank's first female mayor and the first Democrat to serve in more than twenty years.

[9] In 1954, Governor Robert B. Meyner appointed her a commissioner of the New Jersey Highway Authority, which operated the Garden State Parkway.

[11] On March 4, 1964, at a Women's National Press Club dinner, President Lyndon Johnson announced White's appointment as United States Ambassador to Denmark.

At the same time Johnson also named nine other women to federal posts, pledging an end to "stag Government.

[12] After her retirement, she returned to Red Bank, where she worked with local and national organizations, including the United Negro College Fund.