Washington (CNN) – The thorny intersection of race and the economy topped the political agenda Wednesday as President Barack Obama huddled with key African-American leaders at the White House.

Obama held what was dubbed an "urban economy summit" in the Oval Office with a group including the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, and National Urban League President Marc Morial.

National Council of Negro Women Chairwoman Dorothy Height, who is 97 years old, declined an invitation to attend due to the winter storm pounding the Washington area.

The group urged Obama to spend money initially reserved for bank bailouts on areas suffering from chronically high unemployment, according to sources familiar with the attendees' plans.

The investments should be "not race-based but place-based," Jealous said.

The nation's first African-American president remains extremely popular among black voters. A number of African-American leaders, however, are increasingly upset with what they perceive as the federal government's inattention to the needs of economically hard-hit minority communities.

"We do not seek any special kind of edict or special kind of thing from the president because he's African-American," Sharpton said. But we do "expect to be included in the process" as Congress debates a new jobs bill.

We are seeking "substantive change" and not mere "feel-good moments," he added.

Jealous blasted what some political observers have characterized as a GOP strategy of complete opposition to Obama's agenda.

The Republicans are using obstructionist "tactics from the last century" previously employed against African-Americans and now used "against working people," he claimed.

"It's not enough to say no, no, no when people ... are suffering, suffering, suffering," he said. "It's not enough to just hold up progress."

While the national unemployment rate is now 9.7 percent, the jobless rate among African-Americans is over 15 percent. Over 40 percent of black teenagers are unemployed, according to the National Urban League.

Obama has previously argued that the administration's $862 billion stimulus package, as well as its other job growth initiatives, would benefit many of the country's hardest hit communities.

The plan presented to Obama was expected to include recommendations to:

– Expand the small business administration's Community Express Loan
Program;

– Provide a stronger focus on communities with high unemployment;

– Invest $500 million for housing counselors to work with those with
delinquent on loans;

– Expand summer youth jobs programs by investing up to $7 billion to
employ 5 million teenagers;

– Create 100 "urban job academies" to train the chronically unemployed.

– CNN's Suzanne Malveaux and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report