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By Sara Fischer, CNN

updated 3:14 PM EDT, Sun September 28, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- In February, President Barack Obama launched an initiative to provide educational and community support for African-American boys and young men, an issue he said "goes to the very heart of why I ran for president."

But when Obama first unveiled the "My Brother's Keeper" program six months ago, he could not have anticipated that the national conversation this summer would explode into a debate about race relations.

In light of the death of Michael Brown -- the unarmed African-American teen who was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in August -- Obama said that the country is now "awakened" to a reality that a "gulf of mistrust" exists between African-Americans and law enforcement officials in communities throughout the country.

"We still have to close the opportunity gaps, and we have to close the justice gap -- how justice is applied, but also what is perceived, how it is experienced," Obama said at a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation event in Washington on Saturday. "That's what we saw in Ferguson this summer when Michael Brown was killed and the community was divided."

"Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement, guilty of walking while black, driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel by fear and resentment and hopelessness," he continued.

To Brown's family members, who were in the audience at the event, Obama gave a personal nod.

"I know that nothing anybody can say can ease the grief of losing a child too soon."

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Obama to expand My Brother's Keeper in light of Ferguson