Maria (Jessica Garcia) stating she skipped two grades in school, is a reference to how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did the same when he was in elementary school.
Over fifteen shots of actual footage from back in the 1950s and 1960s, were used for flashbacks.
John Travolta's voice acting debut.
The four main characters have their ears pierced.
Samuel L. Jackson was a sophomore at Morehouse College in Atlanta when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. Four days later, Jackson participated in a march in Memphis to continue King's work supporting a garbage workers' strike; he also served as an usher at King's funeral in Atlanta.