‘Sarah’s Oil’ is a new faith-based film that is in theaters. It tells the story of the first Black millionaire Sarah Rector out of Oklahoma in the early 1900s.
It is under the imprint of singer Ciara and her husband NFL player Russell Wilson.
A brief synopsis: In the early 1900s, young Sarah Rector believes there’s oil beneath the barren land she’s allotted in Indian Territory. As greedy sharks close in, Sarah turns to family, friends and some Texas wildcatters to maintain control of the oil-rich land, eventually becoming one of the first female African American millionaires.
She and her family faced racism with oil companies trying to steal the right to the 160-acre plot of land that was bequeathed to only Sarah from an ancestor.
However, Sarah was smart as a whip and took efforts to not be bamboozled—to no avail.
In the film, young Sarah is left to her own devices, wandering into the local whites-only cafe and driving around with a white oil spectator hoping to confirm that her land is oil rich.
I find these scenes unrealistic, as they depict Sarah in unsafe situations and her parents giving her such independence. And even trusting a white man to help them would seem beyond the pale, but the family was facing a high tax bill on the land.
According to a web search: The Oklahoma Legislature tried to declare Sarah Rector an “honorary white” in 1913 so that she could manage her own money without the legal restrictions placed on Black minors.
This effort was motivated by a desire to control her fortune, as Black wealth was often viewed by whites with suspicion and fear during a deeply segregated era.
In the film, Sarah was put under guardianship, but initially that guardian was unscrupulous in his dealings and not expected to work in good faith. He was the same man that Sarah’s family hired to vet out their land. But he was in cahoots with a major oil company and was eventually taken off her paperwork. In other historical recollections of this, the white man is fictitious and not the savior that Hollywood sets him out to be.
Having her declared an “honorary white” would allow her the benefits of elevated social standing, such as riding first-class on trains, having access to whites-only banks and stores, while still denying her the full humanity of being Black.
I suspect this historical fact was depicted in the movies around the guardianship issue. To grant Sarah white status, in my opinion, would ease the white community’s guilt over robbing her of her oil behind her back.
In the film, the NAACP’s Chicago office gets involved. And after much chaos, Sarah finally is able to see the oil gushes arise in her land.
It’s a cute story all wrapped in a pretty bow, although in the film people had to die as money hungry speculators tried to overtake the land.
The film doesn’t show Sarah as a grownup or what happens to her family after the money starts trickling in.
“Sarah’s Oil” is playing in a few theaters, and I’m sure it will eventually come to streaming. It is an ambitious look at a rare event in Black history.
For another viewpoint, and more about the legal rulings around oil in Taft, Oklahoma, where this story takes place, Blackzone Magazine publisher Maurice Woodson discusses Sarah in his latest issue. Search “blackzone magazine Sarah Rector” to read the article or visit tinyurl.com/ms5575vz.