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U.S. Senator Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, speaks to students at the College of Charleston during a town hall meeting on September 30, 2014 in Charleston, South Carolina. Richard Ellis, Getty Images

After a meeting with African-American civil rights leaders in Ferguson, Missouri, on Friday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, said the "biggest mistake" his party made in the last several decades was a failure to reach out to black voters.

In an interview on CNN, Paul said his meeting with leaders from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League, and local business and faith leaders went "very well."

"I don't want to characterize how everybody else feels about what I said, but I think it was a good opening to the conversation," the senator explained. "I think in the Republican Party, the biggest mistake we've made in the last several decades is we haven't gone into the African-American community, into the NAACP and say you know what, we are concerned about what's going on in your cities and we have plans. They may be different than the Democrats, but we do have plans and we do want to help."

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Ferguson was the site of furious protests throughout several weeks ago after a police officer shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August. The racially charged demonstrations pitted protesters against local law enforcement personnel, whose forceful response was condemned by critics as a case study in the excessive use of force.

Paul said that "sense of tension and unease" in black communities goes beyond just the reaction to Brown's death.

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Rand Paul: GOP's "biggest mistake" was not courting black voters