Alabama Grandson: A Black, Gay Minister's Passage Out of Hiding

by Cedrick D Bridgeforth

A Tell-All Memoir Exposes a Hidden Life and Hard-learned LessonsSouthern. Black. Gay. Fatherless. Air Force Veteran. Ordained Methodist Minister. Master of hiding in plain sight. Cedrick Bridgeforth knows what it means to hold, hide, and wrestle with all of these identities. For years Cedrick had taken great pains to shield his full truth from the world. Then one day, at the height of his career, his entire universe came crashing down.Equal parts preacher, poet, confessor, and consummate storyteller, Alabama Grandson chronicles Cedrick’s hard-fought journey to come to terms with the hidden and sometimes conflicting parts of himself. Bookended by poignant letters to his grandmother, Cedrick vulnerably depicts the suffering caused by denying his You were the most influential person in my life. Yet as much as I admired and appreciated you, I did not trust you enough to say to “I am gay.”Written over three decades after his grandmother’s death and at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Alabama Grandson asks as many questions as it answers.This memoir will bring you along for a compelling and multidirectional journey into the past in order to point the way forward. All the while, Cedrick elegantly models that there are different paths to living a fully authentic life and different ways of being a leader and agent of change in today’s world.

310 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 17, 2021

Reviews

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Bridgeforth is now my bishop (Pacific NW - United Methodist Church) and, after watching him conduct a meeting and then participate in a webinar on Social Justice, I wanted to learn more about him. His story begins much as I had expected (knowing he had grown up Black and poor in Alabama), although I was surprised that racism (or at least his awareness of it!) didn't raise its ugly head during his child and teenage years.

The non-linear way he told his story appealed to me - along with the way he would "tease" a story by mentioning it and then coming back to it pages (or chapters) later. And I loved reading how he kept his faith in God in the forefront of most of his decisions and actions - especially as he struggled with the "mixed messages" of God's love and the "sin" of homosexuality.

I do wish he would write another book about what happened after the ending of this book to bring him fully back into the Methodist Church (which is still having it's battles with homosexuality!) and to his present position as Bishop!

[Corey Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and Original

As a huge fan of autobiographies, I have yet to come across one that moves through life defining experiences with nuance and depth and balance. The author is masterful at connecting themes of masculinity, religion, spirituality
introspection, family, and love with just the right amount of detail - not half baked and certainly not over done. He uses big questions about his identity, purpose and upbringing to shape his story moving gracefully between moments in time and deftly picking up themes later in the story without missing a beat. It’s a must read that models how the inner working of coming to one’s own self awareness through acknowledgment and grace should and could be done.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cedrick Bridgeforth’s powerful memoir is a testimony of grace and a sobering reminder of the deep harm caused by racism and anti-LGBTQ teaching in the church. Woven back and forth in time, and through letters to his grandmother, it’s a stunning reminder of our shared humanity; it is a much needed invitation to listen more deeply and speak more openly.

[Maryjane Nordgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating autobiography of double-whammied young man who chose to serve God and community