(Charlie Riedel/AP Photo)

WASHINGTON - President Obama says the turmoil in Ferguson, Mo., over the shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer last August exposed a racial divide between law enforcement and black America, and he vowed to expand a White House program aimed at empowering black youth.

"We have to close the justice gap: How justice is applied but also how it is perceived, how it is experienced," the president said in an address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual gala Saturday night.

"That's what we saw in Ferguson this summer when Michael Brown was killed and a community was divided," he said. "We know that the unrest continues."

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The shooting death of Michael Brown pitted activists and the local black community against law enforcement for weeks and sparked a renewed national debate about police use of force. The Department of Justice is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death.

Michael Brown's parents watched the president's speech Saturday night from the audience.

"The anger and the emotion that followed his death awakened our nation once again to the reality that people in this room have long understood that in too many communities around this country, a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement," Obama said. "Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement, guilty of walking while black or talking while black - judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness."

Speaking before a mix of minority leaders, celebrities, lawmakers, and veterans of the civil rights era, the president announced he would be expanding the White House's "My Brother's Keeper" program, an initiative launched in February as an outreach program to develop support networks for "young men of color."

Through it the administration has gathered $200 million from private donations to go into youth programs including literacy, college preparation, and child engagement over five years. It has featured tutoring programs started by NBA players, and under the program Obama himself has traveled to low income neighborhoods to speak frankly with youth about his own upbringing without a father and drug use.

The White House is expected to announce the details of the new expansion, called a "community challenge" by the president, next week.

The president also took the time to thank Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced this week he would be resigning in the coming months. Holder, who attended the black-tie event, received a standing ovation for his work reducing minimum sentences for minor drug offenses and rehabilitation efforts in the prison system.

"Since I took office the overall crime rate and the overall incarceration rate has gone down by about 10 percent," Obama said. "That's the first time they've declined at the same time in more than 40 years. Fewer folks in jail. Crime still going down."

Holder had also traveled to Ferguson in the aftermath of the shooting.

The president's keynote capped four days of the annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's legislative conference. The foundation is the non-profit wing of its Capitol Hill delegation; Obama has attended nearly every year since assuming office with the exception of 2012, when first lady Michelle Obama went in his stead.

Each year the foundation recognizes individuals for their contributions to minority empowerment. Tonight the Phoenix Awards went to boxing legend and activist Muhammad Ali, writer and journalist Susan L. Taylor, media mogul Cathy Hughes, and civil rights leader Prof. Wade Henderson were this year's recipients alongside Robert L. Wright, CEO of FE Holdings.