176 BECOMING KING As people looked to the MIA after the boycott, the roles for both Nixon and the WPC became less clear. Following his resignation from the MIA, Nixon turned his attention back to union work through his membership in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. By contrast, the MIA had become Robinson’s primary outlet for community engagement. Other WPC members also faced persecution from local authorities. WPC member Thelma Glass remembered the slow demise of her organiza- tion after the boycott: “the city began to retaliate. We began to lose members, they got threats—if they stayed in the council, [they’d lose] their teaching jobs—people had children to feed and all that, and you know, about the situation. So gradually, membership just dropped and dropped until on campus I remember there were just four of us left, Jo Ann Robinson, and J. E. Pierce and Mary Frances Burkes and myself.” In the years following the boycott, the power of the MIA rendered many other African American community organizations and leaders ineffective and inconsequential.54 King’s decision to leave Montgomery was not only a response to the needs of the SCLC. According to many who were in the city at the time, some in the congregation were ready for a new pastor who would prove less controversial and would be more available to attend to the day-to-day pastoral responsibilities. King family friend Mrs. O. B. Underwood later remembered “rumors all over Montgomery that Dexter did not want Rev. King, and they wanted to get rid of him.” Underwood also reflected on the division between some of the younger members at Dexter and those with longer tenures in the congregation. College students and oth- er young adults felt like they were excluded from “the workings and op- erations of Dexter.” Underwood believed part of the problem was “that many people might have felt threatened by him.” Dexter member Warren Brown also credited internal tensions within Dexter as a motivation for King’s decision to leave Montgomery. Brown emphasized the pressure applied to many professionals who attended Dexter due to their associa- tion with King and thus the local civil rights efforts: “Some of the church members complained that the pastor was hurting their cause. Working persons were being threatened by their employers. The old comfort zones were being disturbed.” According to Brown, King challenged those who sought to avoid involvement: “Reverend King stood in the pulpit and