The speech played during the montage of Tick, Leti, and Uncle George driving toward Massachusetts is an excerpt of Black intellectual James Baldwin's famous debate with white conservative intellectual William F. Buckley at Cambridge University's student debating society, the Cambridge Union Society. Aired live on the BBC 12 June 1965, the motion put forward for debate regarded whether the American Dream had "Been Achieved at the Expense of the American Negro." Baldwin and Cambridge University student David Heycock argued in the affirmative (and ultimately prevailed by a vote of the students present, 540 to 160) against their opponents Buckley and student Jeremy Burford.
The car called "The Woodie" is a Packard Station Sedan. They were made from 1948 thru 1950.
The narration at the start of the episode during Atticus's dream of combat, ("This is the story of a boy and his dream, but more than that. This is the story of an American boy, and a dream that is truly American.") comes from the opening prologue of 1950's "The Jackie Robinson Story." Jackie Robinson appears at the end of the dream, demolishing an alien horror with his baseball bat.
When Tic confronts Sammy to find out where his father went, Sammy tells him he ran off with a white man in a silver car (William). The scene then cuts to Ruby singing "I Want A Tall Skinny Papa," which also refers to William.