During a scene with Senator Powell and Kenny O'Donnell, Powell refers to four little girls who were murdered in a basement. This comment is a reference to the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. The massacre occurred on September 15, 1963, and was carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Academy Award-winning director Spike Lee would eventually make a documentary on the tragedy in 1997 which would receive an Academy Award nomination in 1998 for Best Documentary.