Answer:
Carlotta seems to be removed from the events. She describes her reaction to the March on Washington like this: “I had no burning desire to participate in a march that seemed to me then purely symbolic,” but then she felt how powerful it was when she saw the thousands of people on television. However, when Carlotta heard about the 16th Street Church bombing and President Kennedy’s assassination, she was horrified.
It seems like her reaction to the March on Washington reflected her experience—a march by itself didn’t seem to mean much after her time at Central High School where she faced so much discrimination. Upon hearing the news of the 16th Street Church bombing, however, she said, “I knew that the same fate so easily could have been mine.” She identified with the victims in that case. Similarly, President Kennedy’s assassination made her reflect on her experiences, saying “his life extinguished by the same kind of hatred that had been so rampant in Little Rock. I wondered how—and sometimes why—I survived.”