Despite his moderate salary Walter White's parents were able to send all of their children to college. Walter followed his older siblings by attending Atlanta University. He was a middling student yet the Atlanta University experience was important because as he said it taught him that there were decent white people in the world. Walter was on the debate team and during the summer proceeding his senior year worked for the black owned Standard Life Insurance Company that sold policies to African Americans.  He graduated in 1916 and went to work full time for the insurance company where he found middle class African American men who were race conscious.