For some activists and analysts, Ferguson represents a tipping point in the Barack Obama presidency.
“I think Ferguson signifies the end of the age of Obama. It’s a very sad end. We began with tremendous hope and we end with great despair ... because we have a Jim Crow criminal-justice system that does not deliver justice for black and brown people, and especially black and brown poor people," author and professor Cornel West said in a
CNN interview.
Other critics contend the first black president has failed to speak to the frustrations felt by some minorities.
“What he’s failed to do consistently is express the anger and frustration of a very important constituency of his own to not just cultural misunderstandings, but to structural oppression,” Jason Johnson, a professor of political science at Hiram College,
told The Hill.
But Missouri Democrat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said in an interview with The Hill that the president's critics “need to quit trying to make our president a civil rights leader.” He noted that Obama can only do so much and that people should be “careful about putting this kind of luggage on the president’s back.”
Youth activist Rasheen Aldridge Jr. said he was inspired to get involved after hearing Obama talk about hope and change, but after attending a White House meeting on Monday, he left feeling disappointed.
"This man [Obama] starts speaking about hope and change and you felt it. I remember staying home when he got inaugurated and staying on the phone with my grandmother watching every state primary exit polls. He was my idol, he was a person I thought about every single day," Aldridge
told USA Today.
"Those same feelings from 2008 were not there when I met him yesterday. I felt disappointed," said Aldridge, who at the age of 20 is the youngest member of the commission created by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in August.
Aldridge was one of a group of civil rights activists and law enforcement officials invited to the White House to discuss ways to address the tensions which have arisen in the wake of the Ferguson riots.
In the wake of the grand jury's decision not to prosecute Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, left-leaning activists have openly criticized and expressed disappointment in Obama.
"We appreciate the president wanted to meet with us, but now he must deliver with meaningful policy," Ohio Students Association political director James Hayes, who also attended Monday's meeting with Obama, told NBC News.
In a statement released by Hayes, he called for a continuation of the protests which have taken place in cities across the nation since the grand jury's verdict, saying that "everyone who believes that black lives matter to continue taking to the streets until we get real change for our communities."
Ashley Yates, who was one of the youth activists participating in a Tuesday conference call about Monday's meeting with Obama, said the president needs to use his office to affect change,
according to Ebony magazine.
"What we need him to do now is use the power of his position, the power of the highest office of the land to enact some real change. We have been on the ground making the changes that we can in our community, but these are high-level changes and these are systemic issues and we need systemic solutions for them,” Yates added.
The administration
announced three steps designed to strengthen relations between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve, including creating a task force to promote community-based policing and taking executive action to reform the federal 1033 Program which equips state and local law enforcement with military-style equipment.
The administration also proposed a three-year, $263 million investment package to increase the use of body-worn cameras by police officers and finance reforms of local law enforcement departments.