A big question you face is how to frame your paper.  Even once you have narrowed it down to a specific topic in North Carolina in the years after World War II, you still have many possible ways to go.  Your paper will be strongest if you are seeking to answer a specific question.

One possibility would be to frame your paper as examining change over time:

How did xx (or newspapers’/documents discussion of xx) change from 19xx to 19xx?

What might this look like for the following topics:

college sports
tobacco
textiles

For some topics, specific incidents on specific dates are important.

Business and Civil Rights (Greensboro student lunch counter sit ins, these began in Greensboro in February 1960.  (One might want to see what happened in other cities, such as Raleigh or Charlotte.)

Tobacco 
Surgeon’s General Report on Smoking January 1964
Requirement for Warning Labels on Cigarettes 1966
End to TV Advertising 1969
Tobacco Settlement ($206 Billion Payout to States) November 20, 1998
End of Tobacco Quota System 2004

NCSU Centennial Campus
Master Plan Unveiled 1986
First Building Completed 1989
First Corporate Tenant 1991