Bryan Stalder
Contributor
A new feature film, Sarah’s Oil, will open in theaters on November 7, starring Naya Desir-Johnson, Sonequa Martin-Green, and Zachary Levi. The film tells the story of Sarah Rector, who became America’s first Black female millionaire after oil was discovered on her land in Oklahoma in the early 1900s.
Born in 1902 in what was then Twine, Indian Territory, Rector was a member of the Creek Freedmen community. At just 11 years old, her family’s land began producing oil, generating a fortune that made national headlines and brought her financial independence few African Americans of her era could dream of…