Sarah Rector’s story hasn’t been widely known until recent years.
“Sarah’s Oil,” a new biographical drama currently playing in movie theaters, tells the story of how in the early 1900s, Rector became one of the first Black female millionaires at just 11 years old.
Rector’s grandchildren say the family always wanted her story told.
“The movie really encapsulated her personality. She was a woman of faith. She was strong-willed, independent, and whatever she wanted to pursue, she went after,” said Sheryl Fleming-Campbell, Rector’s granddaughter, in a conversation with KCUR's Up To Date
Rector received 160 acres of barren land in Oklahoma through the Dawes Act. The property was unfarmable and thought to be worthless. But an oil strike in 1913 produced more than 2,000 barrels of black-gold each day.
As a Black family, the Rectors' sudden fortune put them at risk, compelling them to move to Kansas City, Missouri.
Rector died in 1965. Although her youngest granddaughter, Sarah Campbell, was a small child at the time, she believes the version of Sarah Rector on screen to be an accurate portrayal of who she was as a child.
“As an adult, we saw how she was able to maneuver through Jim Crow, how she was able to manage her business as a African American, wealthy woman in an era where she didn't really belong, and she was able to do that as an adult,” Campbell said. “So it seemed plausible that this was her at the age of 11.”
- Sarah Campbell, secretary of The Sarah Rector Foundation and granddaughter of Sarah Rector
- Sheryl Fleming-Campbell, treasurer of The Sarah Rector Foundation and granddaughter of Sarah Rector
