Story highlights President Barack Obama is meeting Wednesday with activists from the Black Lives Matter movement

Black Lives Matter activists DeRay Mcesson and Brittany Packnett are attending

Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama met Wednesday with activists from the Black Lives Matter movement as well as a range of law enforcement officials and community leaders in what he called an "excellent conversation" amid a spate of violence between black communities and police across the country.

"The bad news is, as we saw so painfully this week, that this is really a hard job. We're not there yet," Obama told reporters following the meeting.

He continued, "We're not even close to being there yet, where we want to be. We're not at a point yet where communities of color feel confident that their police departments are serving them with dignity and respect and equality. And we're not at the point yet where police departments feel adequately supported at all levels."

The meeting -- which lasted over four hours -- included Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and Black Lives Matter activists DeRay Mckesson and Brittany Packnett.

McKesson called the meeting with Obama and leaders "productive" and that the President was "incredibly solution orientated in this conversation and pushed to challenge people to think about the concrete things that both the administration could do and law enforcement and activists could do to make sure that we address the issue of police violence head on and also that our communities are safe."

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