“The civil rights community is like every sector anywhere. While from the outside it seems like a monolith, it is not,” said Cheryl A. Leanza, a policy adviser for the United Church of Christ Office of Communication. Though she was part of the 11-member group that included Mr. Jackson, she asked the chairman to embrace the president’s plan.

The debate is but one slice of a huge campaign to lobby the five F.C.C. commissioners as they weigh net neutrality, the concept that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, and whether to reclassify broadband as a more heavily regulated service.

Since 2002, broadband has been classified as a Title I information service under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, meaning that the F.C.C. lightly regulates it. Title II services include “common carriers” like telephone companies, whose rates the F.C.C. can regulate and whose business plans often require the commission’s approval.

In May, Mr. Wheeler made a proposal that would allow companies to pay Internet providers to give them a “fast lane” to consumers. Mr. Wheeler is against that practice, known as paid prioritization, and he said his proposal would discourage it. But the regulatory outline released by the F.C.C. would still allow for paid prioritization in some circumstances, a loophole that was seized on by opponents.

President Obama urged the F.C.C. to reclassify broadband as a Title II service, which would generally give the commission the authority to prohibit broadband providers from blocking or discriminating against legal online content.