"Hal" Rand, as he was known to most, was a white farmer and slave owner.

CNN: The story

"I am not really excusing" the slave owner, he says, "just saying that he only becomes a villain when he becomes conscious" of what he's doing.

CNN: Slave master becomes an abolitionist

Everything slows and thickens from then on, as Django seeks to rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from the manicured claws of a slave owner named Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

NEWYORKER: Django Unchained

"It took a hurricane to speed up and really jump-start the reform efforts in New Orleans, " says Gary Robichaux, principal of McDonogh 15 (named for a slave owner who over a century ago left an endowment for building public schools in New Orleans).

FORBES: Katrina's Surprise