Some years before, White had met and married Pearl Bailey, when both of them were still relatively unknown professionally. Bailey's career was on the rise; she was performing in the better nightclubs with people like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway while White was still struggling in lesser venues. The marriage was in trouble at the time White and Foxx first met. The couple divorced. Years later, when White and dancer Bill Bailey, who was Pearl's brother, teamed up for an act, White joked that the act would be billed as "Rev. Bill Bailey and his ex-brother-in-law". "Slappy's" solo career started in 1951 when Dinah Washington requested him to introduce her act at the Black Hawk in San Francisco. White started out as a chauffeur to the singer, entertaining her with jokes as he drove. When she was late arriving on stage one evening, Washington, worried about the waiting audience, asked White to go on stage and "say something funny" while she prepared for her performance. "Slappy" was such a hit with the patrons, she kept him on as her opening act. He was once also married to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and blues belter, LaVern Baker (1929-1997). White was a performer in Las Vegas for many years. In the 1950s while he was on the bill with Dinah Washington, White performed his routine which made the nightclub's manager the target of his jokes. While there was nothing offensive about the jokes White told, there was an unwritten rule about black comedians targeting whites in this manner. The manager fired White, but changed his mind about the comedian's employment when Dinah Washington indicated she would withdraw her entire act because of White's firing. White spent four years with Dinah Washington before establishing himself as a solo act. White wrote and performed a comedy routine called "Brotherhood Creed" using one black and one white glove while reciting his poem about equality between men. White performed the routine many times during the civil rights movement in America, and President John F. Kennedy once gave it a personal commendation. In 1965, White was invited to perform the "Brotherhood Creed" before the Massachusetts State Senate. He was also well known as a comedian who eschewed offensive material in his nightclub act. In 1969, he formed a new comedy team called Rossi and White with Steve Rossi, who formerly worked with Marty Allen.