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n the 1950s, Badin, North Carolina, was a segregated town divided by a titanic plant owned by the Aluminum Company of America. The company owned not just the plant, but also the schools, homes, and streets. On the town’s western side, known variously as West Badin or Negro Village, the alleyways went unpaved. Residents recall workers used a unique substance to tamp down the dust. “They would get PCB oils out of the power breakers and transformers,” said Macy Hinson, who grew up in West Badin. He remembers seeing trucks spread the oily concoction on the dirt.

As a youth, Hinson held the company, now known as Alcoa, in high regard. His family moved to Badin (pronounced Bay-din) in the 1940s to seek jobs at the plant. The Hinsons had been farmers, and Alcoa offered a lucrative and stable alternative to sharecropping. Black acquaintances from other parts of the country remarked on the presence of indoor plumbing in the Hinsons’ Alcoa-owned home, and Hinson grew up longing to work at Alcoa like his father and uncles. He started there when he was 19 and stayed for nearly 33 years.