Black workers fueled North Carolina's labor movement in the past — and are dictating its future

Inside the archives, a closet crowded with binders and manila folders shelved in clear bins, Angaza Laughinghouse took a moment to strategize which bin to pull out first.

“I’m trying to figure out where to start,” he said. “I haven’t looked at some of this in ages.”

Laughinghouse, 71, was in northeast Raleigh, North Carolina, at the Fruit of Labor World Cultural Center, where troves of documents tell the past 40 years of labor efforts in North Carolina through the lens of Black workers.