Talbot was one of several Maine residents to attend the 1963 March on Washington. He has written and spoken about the experience's impact on his political goals and activism, and in 2013 he told Maine's "The Free Press," "At the end, there were four or five things we had to do after. We had to go home and tell everyone we were at the march, and we had to fight for jobs and education. And that's what most of us in that march did."