African-American and legislative leaders called upon attendees of the 29th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Dinner in Glen Burnie to work to honor the legacy of the event's namesake.

Led by the Annapolis-based Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, the dinner honored 10 people from Anne Arundel County and the surrounding region for work that emulates King's vision.

While many of the speakers pointed to the accomplishments made in the black community in Anne Arundel and across the country, the stark contrast in tone and approach between President Barack Obama and Republican President-elect Donald Trump alongside GOP's congressional majorities seeped into speeches throughout the night.

Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Baltimore County, directly compared King and Obama through what he saw as shared priorities.

“It's altogether fitting and proper to think of their joint legacy and it's a legacy of lifting people up,” he said. He also seemed to allude to Trump when he urged the crowd to protect and support those who are the victims of “self-centered men tearing people's dignity down.”

Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Prince George's, compared the current day to the Civil Rights era, saying “these are troubling times and uncertain times.”

The night's keynote speaker was the Rev. Kevin Cosby, the senior pastor at St. Stephen Church and the president of Simmons College of Kentucky.

In an interview with Capital Gazette, he said King's vision cannot be fully realized until whites in America tackle the country's history of oppression and what he said is still leaving a strong imprint on modern society.

“I liken it to a (wrestling) match where an opponent is pinned to the canvas (and) the referee counts ... the opponent out ... without knowing what precipitated the pinning of the player,” Cosby said.

“So we're talking a total of 350 years in which one group received preferential treatment, or, if you will, affirmative action,” he continued. “And another group legally was prohibited from advancing in every category and every area of society.”

And while some surveys find that a majority of white people feel that race relations have become worse under Obama, Cosby said the president merely exposed the underpinnings of American society.

“The polarization was always there and ... I think what whites should be saying is not that race relations suddenly became worse under Obama,” Cosby said. “But under Obama, maybe we became aware of how race relations (have) always been.”

The dinner itself blended the praise meant for the night's award winners with caution and concern for the years ahead.

Prior to presenting the Alan Hilliard Legum Civil Rights Award, named after an attorney from Annapolis who was involved in Civil Rights cases, Legum's son, Judd Legum, spoke to the need for the black community to keep pushing forward.

He said “there is a storm coming in Washington” and that Congress won't present many solutions for the black community.

“It's really going to be up to each of us to weather the storm,” he added.

The award, the first time it has been handed out, was given to Dr. Alyson L. Hall and Annapolis Alderman Kenneth A. Kirby. Hall, a board-certified ophthalmologist, won as a result of her work in minority health care while Kirby was recognized for his work with the county's public school system and as chairman of Annapolis' Housing and Human Welfare, Housing, and Community Development committees.

While Cosby was pointed in his comments toward whites in America — calling upon them to recognize the privileges they see in everyday life — he also proposed solutions to help quell the divide.

During his speech, he said the country needs to fund and strengthen “black institutions.”

“Black institutions are institutions where the governance (is) in the hands of black people,” Cosby told Capital Gazette.

“You will never fix the problems that the masses of blacks have until you have black institutions in place,” he said. “And people of good will — black and white and Latino — must assist blacks in urban areas that have been socially isolated in those institutions to help black people maximize who they are.”

For a full list of the winners, visit www.capitalgazette.com/lifestyle/ph-ac-cn-mlk-dinner-0103-20170102-story.html/.