Another movie that had me scratching my head was Steven Spielberg's Amistad.
1839... Slave ship full of slaves from Sierra Leone, where they were captured and sold into slavery by other "evil" black men to "evil" Spanish merchants. The ship makes it to Cuba but the slaves revolt on the way to the US. Two of the "evil" Spanish merchants steer the ship to the East coast of the US instead and the vessel ends up being captured by an American navy ship, which takes them to port and detains all.
What ensues next is white-washing of monumental, biblical, proportions: The case is taken to court where a court-full of white folks hear everyone's side and... the slaves are eventually freed and returned to Africa. Science fiction at its best. As to why Spielberg would choose that extremely short window of time when the North became extremely obtrusive with the South's racial practices (not because Northerners believed in equal rights, mind you, in fact many Northern towns had anti-black exclusionary town covenants) tells me there is more to the story that what eventually made it to the screen. Steve made a movie that white-washed real issues, made heroes out of what were really evil human beings and anti-heroes out of no-ones just doing their jobs. Even the Royal Navy made it out unscathed, as if!!
