Barack Obama got into a heated exchange with a group of protesters during a speech in Florida on Friday who accused him of ignoring the black community.

The commotion started when three young black men stood up in the middle of Obama's address on economic security, holding a banner that asked, "What about the black community, Obama?"

As the men starting shouting, Obama turned around and tried to calm down the crowd, which booed in response to the protesters and initially prevented Obama from continuing with his speech.

After the crowd started chanting "Yes we can," drowning out the three men, Obama scolded them.

"Young man, this is going to be a question and answer session -- you can ask your questions after ... sit down," he said. "You don't want to disrupt the whole meeting. Be courteous, that's all."

After finishing his speech in St. Petersburg, Obama called on one of the men as promised.

"My question is, in the face of the numerous attacks that are made against the African community, or the black community by the same U.S. government that you aspire to lead ... why is it you have not had the ability, not one time, to speak to the interests ... of the oppressed and exploited black community in this country?" he asked, citing sub-prime lending, Hurricane Katrina and the shooting of Sean Bell by New York City police officers in 2006.

Obama said the questioner was "misinformed," and again tried to quiet him as he shouted back.

"On each of these issues, I've spoken out," Obama said. "I may not have spoken out in the way you would have wanted me to speak out ... which gives you the option of voting for somebody else, it gives you the option to run for office yourself. “

“But the one thing that I think is important is we’re respectful toward each other,” Obama said.

The encounter came as Obama's campaign was trying to fight charges from John McCain's campaign that he played the "race card" in saying Republicans would try to make voters afraid of him.

FOX News' Aaron Bruns contributed to this report.