Sarah's Oil

Sarah Rector, an African-American girl born in Oklahoma Indian Territory in the early 1900s, had a strong belief that oil lay beneath the barren land she was given. Her intuition proved correct. As opportunistic oil prospectors began to encroach, Sarah relied on the support of her family, friends, and a few Texas wildcatters to protect her valuable oil-rich property. This determination led her to become one of the nation’s first female African-American millionaires—achieving this remarkable milestone at just eleven years old.