In his first live remarks on the country's unrest, Obama struck a note of optimism, while acknowledging the despair and anger powering the protests since the death of George Floyd in police custody nine days ago.

"In some ways, as tragic as these last few weeks have been, as difficult and scary and uncertain as they've been, they've also been an incredible opportunity for people to be awakened to some of these underlying trends," Obama said via livestream from Washington.

"And they offer an opportunity for us to all work together to tackle them, to take them on, to change America and make it live up to its highest ideals."

He also directly addressed young Americans of colour, telling them, "I want you to know that you matter, I want you to know that your lives matter, that your dreams matter."

Obama saw a similar outpouring of grief and frustration while in office after a spate of police killings of unarmed black men.

Wednesday's address was part of a discussion hosted by My Brother's Keeper, a program Obama founded in 2014 in the wake of the police shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, to address deep-seated racial inequities.

Meanwhile, earlier Democrat President, Jimmy Carter, issued a statement calling for Americans in positions of power and influence to fight racial injustice, saying "silence can be as deadly as violence."

The 95-year-old former president noted that he declared "the time for racial discrimination is over" during his 1971 inauguration speech as Georgia's governor, and was repeating those words almost 50 years later.

Australian Associated Press