174 BECOMING KING of the SCLC, King decided to accept an offer from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to join his father as co-pastor of the church. It was a difficult decision to leave Dexter, but King announced his resignation following Sunday services on November 29, 1959. A draft prepared for the occasion included the following notes: “Little did I know when I came to Dexter that in a few months a movement would commence in Montgomery that would change the course of my life forever. . . . Un- knowingly and unexpectedly, I was catapulted into the leadership of the Montgomery movement. At points I was unprepared for the symbolic role that history had thrust upon me. Everything happened so quickly & spontaneously that I had no time to think through the implications of such leadership.” Many in the church responded with words of encour- agement, including deacon T. H. Randall, who wrote a letter appreciat- ing “the kind of life” King had lived as pastor, noting his “sermons and talks have served as a compelling force in our lives—urging us to live the full life thus broadening the horizons of our responsibilities beyond our own church.”50 A few short days after his resignation from Dexter, King addressed the MIA at the organization’s annual conference on Nonviolence and Social Change. His speech included a detailed update on progress in the local struggle for integration and justice. Noting the MIA “is still attempting to make this community a better place to live” and remained “active and deeply committed to its task,” King highlighted its contributions to many community projects, including a $20,000 gift to construct a new YMCA and $11,000 to support Vernon Johns’s Farm and City Enterprise, a co- operative grocery store in the area. King hoped Farm and City would “stand as a symbol of what the Negro could do by pooling his economic resources.” He also stressed the increased patronage of African American– owned businesses since the boycott, a tactic regularly encouraged at MIA mass meetings. The organization had also contributed money to several legal cases, including the defense of Jeremiah Reeves. Perhaps the biggest contribution of the MIA in King’s mind was its role as the first and best place for the community’s African American citizens to go when they had some difficulty. The MIA provided “an organization, with its doors opened everyday in the week, that will fight” for justice and help ensure the well-being of Montgomery’s most vulnerable citizens. By taking on