Black Sis-tory: Sarah Rector, one of America’s first black millionaires
“Oil made pickaninny rich” –headline in Kansas City Star, January 15,1914.
The “pickaninny” in the article is Sarah Rector, born March 3,1902 in Indian Territory—now Oklahoma. (Sarah Rector birth certificate)
The newspaper characterized her as “an orphan, crude, Black, and uneducated, yet worth more than $4,000,000.” Contrary to the article’s framing, she had parents, she attended school in Taft, Oklahoma, and her highest documented wealth was $1 million.
Her parents, Joseph and Rose Rector, were Creed Freedmen-- descendants of Black people enslaved by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and freed after the Civil War.
Under The Dawes Allotment Act of 1887, Joseph, his wife, and three children each received land in Indian Territory. Eleven-year-old Sarah’s parcel was 159 acres of rocky, infertile land, inconveniently located 100 miles northwest of her hometown.
Her father, a hardworking farmer, attempted to sell his children’s acres to pay property taxes but could not find a buyer, so he leased Sarah’s plot to the Standard Oil Company, which “offset some of the tax payments and came with a royalty if a splash or two of oil happened to be found….,” said historian Lauren N. Henley, Ph.D., a professor at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.
That “splash or two” turned into a “gusher” in February 1913, when wildcat driller B.B. Jones, struck oil on Sarah’s land, which produced 2,500 barrels a day and earned about $300 daily, making her one of the first Black female millionaires in the United States.
Surprisingly, as word of Sarah’s wealth spread, she received requests for loans, cash gifts, and marriage proposals—even though she was only eleven.
According to KC Yesterday website, “Under laws at the time, a white guardian was appointed to manage her estate despite her parents being alive.” Concern about Sarah’s white guardianship prompted W.E.B. Du Bois to create the NAACP’s Children’s Department in part because of her case, while educator Booker T. Washington helped arrange her enrollment at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Megan Dennis, PhD., lecturer at Kansas University, explained, “Their concern … stemmed from white guardians charging exorbitant sums of money for their services or sometimes arranging deals profitable for themselves and their white acquaintances….”
Sarah eventually gained full control of her estate in 1920, when she turned eighteen. By then, her fortune exceeded one million dollars. *
After gaining independence, she moved with her family to Kansas City, Missouri, where she purchased a stately stone home known as the Rector Mansion. In 1920, she married businessman Kenneth Campbell, and they had three sons before divorcing in 1930. She later married restaurant owner William Crawford, remaining with him until her death.
Sarah was a local celebrity, who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, which included owning a Cadillac and a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce, and hosting elegant parties attended by the Black elite and jazz legends Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
During the Great Depression, Sarah, like many wealthy Americans, lost much of her fortune. She had to sell her home; however, her real estate investments in Oklahoma and Kansas helped her remain financially stable.
Dennis noted, “When her life had been so heavily scrutinized and publicized as an adolescent, it is not so surprising, then, that she might choose to maintain a secured private life in later years.”
Sarah died at the age of 65 on July 22, 1967, and is buried in Taft Cemetery, Oklahoma.
Note: In 2022, the paperwork necessary to place the Rector Mansion (located on the corner of 12th Street and Euclid Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri) on the National Register of Historic Places was completed and the final draft was accepted. However, the Rector Mansion has not yet been placed on National Register of Historic Places because of funding constraints.
*Estimated today as roughly between $25 - $28 million.
One public domain photo, purportedly of Sarah Rector as a child, exists; her descendants dispute its legitimacy.
Image: AI-generated
