Conference Gives Obama Opportunity to Discuss Poverty and Race

During two campaigns and most of his time in office, President Obama has portrayed himself as the champion of a middle class fighting to recover from a devastating economic collapse.

But eruptions of racial tensions in Baltimore; Ferguson, Mo.; and Staten Island have accelerated a shift in the later stages of Mr. Obama’s presidency, as the nation’s first black president begins to refocus his administration’s attention on the plight of the poor, especially in African-American communities.

On Tuesday, the president extended that effort by participating in a panel discussion at a con