Angaza Laughinghouse, a founding member and three-term president of UE Local 150, received the Discount Foundation’s 8th Annual Legacy Award at the 2023 Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Celebration, held last night by Jobs with Justice.
Angaza Laughinghouse (center) with Jobs with Justice Executive Director Erica Smiley (left) and retired UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley (right).
The well-attended event was held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Laughinghouse's award was the first given out during the two-plus hour program. He was enthusiastically received by the crowd. In his acceptance speech, he spoke about fighting for justice in North Carolina. He also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “Everyday workers must make history and stand up for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide that’s going on,” Laughinghouse declared, to applause.
Laughinghouse was introduced by retired UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley, who said “Angaza is a leader, an organizer, an artist and perhaps foremost, an educator — educating his fellow workers at ‘lunch and learn’ meetings in public employee break rooms but unafraid to educate leaders of his national union as well, making sure his union keeps its commitment to democracy, diversity and rank-and-file control.”
Later in the program, Laughinghouse and his wife Nathanette Mayo, a fellow member of the Fruit of Labor Singing Ensemble and UE Local 150, took the stage and got the crowd rocking and responding to the hip-hop song “Win Justice.”