Busting the Myth Behind Moctezumas Headdress; Did It Really Belong Him? Jones produced a gusher on her land that brought in 2,500 barrels or 105,000 gallons per day. In 1902, young Sarah Rector was born into this world, the second eldest of Joe and Rose Rectors nine children. Besides the white guardianship, given the amount of her wealth, in 1913 the Oklahoma Legislature decided to declare her as a white person in an attempt to keep her business in the territory. Privacy Policy She owned stocks, bonds, a boarding house, businesses, and a 2,000-acre piece of prime river bottomland. A record 13 feet of snow accumulated in the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range by Tuesday evening - the heaviest snow fall since 1985. Connecting Oklahoma's Electric Cooperative Communities, Mailing Address: 5 Advantages Of In-Home Therapy And Rehabilitation, NFL COVID PROTOCOLS: OUTBREAK POSTPONES STEELERS-TITANS. He had lived in the home for over 17 years. [11] Given her wealth, in 1913, the Oklahoma Legislature made an effort to have her declared white, allowing Rector to reap the benefits of her elevated social standing, such as riding in a first-class car on the trains.[4]. Rector was about 16 then and not half-Creek. Sarahs luck hit in part because of her ancestry and the way in which land allotments for Native Americans- and their freedmen slaves- occurred in Oklahoma. In a role not unfamiliar to descendants of historical figures, Brown said she finds herself constantly playing whack-a-mole as journalists and academics replicate earlier errors. When Rector died at age 65 on July 22, 1967, her wealth was diminished, but she still had some working oil wells and real estate holdings. What changed Sarah and the Rectors life overall was a stroke of luck if you may say. Can someone update her wikipedia page with the right photo at least. Although Joseph Rector had selected Porter as Sarahs guardian before oil was discovered on her land, newspapers soon picked up the story that the Rector family was still living in relative poverty while Sarahs white guardian was making a killing off her oil. Great greed followed great wealth, however, and the hunger for oil money sometimes led to murder, a phenomenon that played out notoriously in the decades-long killings of the Osage Indians for their oil rights beginning just a few years before Sarah struck it rich. Du Bois himself got involved, hoping to verify this story and rectify any injustice done to Sarah. Its this legacy that Brown saw herself paying tribute to about 12 years ago when she began with the help of her sisters and partner, Karen Riffle, to document Sarah Rectors life. 2022 - 2023 Times Mojo - All Rights Reserved Under the Dawes Allotment Act, Creek lands were divided among the Creeks and former slaves. 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If youre unfamiliar with the story, The Richest Black Girl in America is set in the early 1900s, and follows the true tale of Sarah Rector, an 11-year-old Black girl in Jim Crow America, who is given reparations in the form of uninhabitable land by the U.S. government. WebWhat happened to Daryl Hall and Sara Allen? After finding out there was oil in the parcel, and trying to make some money out of it, Joseph decided to lease the parcel to an oil company in 1911. She never managed to recover all that wealth, though she lived comfortably for the rest of her life until the age of 65. Rectors lost most of her wealth during The Great Depression. Defeated, he sobbed all the way to Dallas on a train where he ended up in Baylor Hospital. For their part, Black-owned newspapers, including the influential Chicago Defender, speculated anxiously that Rectors White guardian was taking advantage of her and shortchanging her education. Diane Euston writes a regular history column regarding the Kansas City area on her blog The New Santa Fe Trailer. Rectors spending was legendary, and she routinely drove around town in one of her expensive vehicles. When Sarah reached legal age, a judge found her mentally sound and capable of managing her own affairs. Moreover, Sarahs parents, Joseph and Rose, were also forced to pay a land tax of $30 per year on their daughters property. Meanwhile, Chinas state-run media portrays China as acting as a good faith peacemaker. Each member of the Rector family received a 160-acre allotment of rocky, unproductive land deemed unsuitable for farming. Had the U.S. government known at the time what flowed beneath Sarahs rocky acres, they likely would have reconsidered. [10] John Rector's father, Benjamin McQueen, was enslaved by Reilly Grayson, who was a Creek Indian. The town belonged to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and was one of several all-Black towns set up specifically for descendants of Africans enslaved by the Nation prior to the Civil War. (Museum officials did not respond to a request for comment for this story.). But things didnt work out for them In 1930, they divorced, and four years later Sarah got married for a second time. The White-owned newspapers, seemingly unconstrained by facts and at times human decency, were openly racist in their coverage. The most important part of this saga is the simple fact that her family got lost within the tabloids tabloids worldwide that painted a picture of a poor little black girl from Oklahoma who slept on dirt floors, struck it rich, was taken advantage of and lived frivolously. Concerned with her wellbeing and her white financial guardian, early NAACP leaders fought to protect her and her fortune. Kim Kardashian is now officially a billionaire: Forbes estimates her net worth is approximately $1 billion, up from $780 million in October 2020. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. This home-place was a stately stone house. With an estimated net worth of $177 billion, he is the richest person in the world. Cover photo: These photos are commonly used when telling the story of Sarah Rector, however her descendants claim these are not her. By the time Sarah was 18, she was worth well over one million dollars. I was lucky that a line of the Rectors Sarahs nieces- were willing to talk to me and share their stories. Jones struck a gusher on Sarahs land that produced 2,500 barrels a day, which gave Sarah a whopping daily income of $300. WebShe recalls once during the Hotel California tour when Henley flew her in a cranberry-colored jet to the Omni in Atlanta to watch the show. They divorced in 1930 and Rector remarried in 1934. If theres a lesson for others in her legacy, its in the importance of financial literacy, she said. The Rector Mansion use to belong to Sarah Rector, the richest 12-year-old Black American at that time. Was Sarah Rector the first black millionaire? Any oil produced would give a 12.5 percent royalty to the land owner. How Sarah Rector Became The Richest Black Girl In America In The Early 20th Century. In March, 1912, oil driller B.B. The truth: At the time, Rector was living with both her parents in a two-room cabin. When the Indian territory where Rector was born became Oklahoma in 1907, the federal government granted each member of the Creek Nation a land allotment, including descendants of people enslaved by the Nation like four-year-old Sarah Rector. She is interred in Blackjack Cemetery in her childhood hometown of Taft.[17]. Joe Rectors attempts to lease it for oil and natural gas exploration at first netted little. Upon graduation, she attended the Institute. The federal government required the appointment of financial guardians, usually White men, to manage the oil wealth of Native Americans and Freedmen. Rector Family PhotographSarah Rector moved to Kansas City in 1917, where she finished high school and stayed for the rest of her life. Along with her businesses, she owned 2,000 acres of river bottomland and was worth over $1 million. Mama Rose died in 1957, and Sarah passed in 1967 from a cerebral hemorrhage. In 1913, an independent driller, B.B. Early life. Due to her newfound wealth, publications across America wrote of marriage proposals, especially those that came from four white men from Germany. As its revealed in the last episode of Self Made, yes, Madam C.J. The couple had three children and though over a decade of marriage enjoyed the status of being local royalty. That same year, Rector enrolled in the Childrens House, a boarding school for teenagers atTuskegee InstituteinAlabama. increase font size, Honor Black History Month by learning the rags to riches story of Sarah Rector. Newspaper articles about Sarah Rector spread throughout America and were filled with the casual racism of the era. Since he could not sell the land, Joseph Rector decided to lease it out to a Pittsburgh oil company. Wanting to change her life, she left Tuskegee where she had been studying and moved with her family to Kansas City in Missouri. Du Bois is said to have written directly to the county judge who oversaw Rectors affairs for more information. When she died at age 65 on July 22, 1967, she only Born as the daughter of freedmen in 1902, Sarah Rector rose from humble beginnings to reportedly become the wealthiest black girl in the nation at the age of 11. Sarah and her mother were known for their fancy Cadillacs, Lincolns and a Rolls Royce limo they raced around town. But as Self Made shows, their marriage deteriorated as she grew successful, and they divorced in 1910. [4] In June of that year, a special agent for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), James C. Waters Jr., sent a memo to Du Bois regarding her situation. In the 1920s, the Rector family moved to Kansas City where Sarah graduated from Lincoln High School. Her siblings all took on jobs- her mother even for a time went back to working as a maid. The family resided in this home until shortly after the Stock Market Crash where it was then purchased by the Adkins Funeral Home. A horse and buggy were purchased to spare the children the two-mile trek to school. Sarah Rector died in 1967 from a stroke at the age of 65. Inside, it says it was Rector at 12, while the 1915 caption, which does not include a photo credit, says she was 10. By the time Sarah was 18, she was worth well over one million dollars. While living on Creek Indian land, Rectors parents Joseph and Rose were given hundreds of acres thought to be useless in 1907. But Rectors first guardian, a rancher named T.J. Porter, invested her earnings judiciously in rich river bottom land, business properties and lucrative mortgages. Thank you for subscribing! Her parents were African American members of the Muscogee Creek Nation. [4] Sarah Rector died in 1967 from a stroke at the age of 65. By Sydney Trent The two photos side-by-side, one of a child in a plaid dress and the other of a woman with her hair pulled simply back, have been timelessly interpreted to be the richest black girl in America, Sarah Rector the very same Sarah Rector who lived out the majority of her life in Kansas City. But she had also intentionally chosen to omit Pope-Turnbos role.. Sarah was born on March 3, 1902. In 1887, the state declared the Dawes Allotment Act, which established that all Creek Freedmen minors had to be granted land. 5 Factors Why You Should Be Selecting the Right Web Hosting Company. In November 1921, Fred Rector, Sarahs uncle, alleged that Rector was dissipating her fortune and asked that G.C. Parker, a white man of Muskogee, be appointed as guardian. In March 1922, another application was filed against her that sought a guardian to oversee her estate. Two years later, Rectors fortune took a major turn when independent oil driller B.B. Additionally, Joe and Rose now had a daughter who was transformed as a little black girl from Taft to a millionaire headline overnight. about $11 million In late August 1913, B.B. Sarah Ferguson says the late Queen was her 'total idol' and 'put you at ease straightaway' - and admits when her corgis 'bark at nothing' she 'believes it's the monarch passing by' For the first time, Brown heard the word: oil. In October 1914, Rector enrolled at the Childrens House, a boarding school for teens at Tuskegee Institute. The Rector Mansion in Kansas City still stands though, and her descendants hope to buy it back from the city and turn it into a museum about her life. The newspaper published an article claiming that her estate was being mismanaged by her family and that she was uneducated, and had a poor quality of life. This will help towards getting the correct info out there. When she was 20 years old, Sarah married Kenneth Campbell; he was known to be the second Black man in the US to own an auto dealership. She had five siblings. In 1922, she married Kenneth Campbell, the second African American to own an auto dealership. Her maternal great-great-grandmother had been enslaved by Creek Chief Opothle Yoholo in Alabama during the first half of the 19th century, according to Tonya Bolden, author of Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America published in 2014. Following the Civil War, Rectors parents, who were formerly enslaved by Creek Tribe members, were entitled to land allotments under the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887. Yet depending on the publication, the family was either senselessly rich or persistently poor. The stock market crash of 1929 and the Depression that followed probably depleted her accounts. W.E.B. Du Bois, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and its magazine, the Crisis, became involved in Sarah Rectors case when Du Bois received a memo from James C. Waters, Jr., an attorney and agent affiliated with the NAACP, on June 18, 1914. She was in Kansas City, Mo., where her family had relocated a few years earlier. She drove a green and black Cadillac, later adding a silver-plated Lincoln and a chauffer-driven Rolls Royce. When Rector died at age 65 on July 22, 1967, her wealth was diminished, but she still had some working oil wells and It wasnt until Brown was in her late teens after Rector died in 1967 at the age of 65 that Brown realized Aunt Sister had indeed been rich. Her grandparents had been enslaved by Creek Indians and freed after the Civil War. Your Money, Your Life, LATEST LISTS Were no interviews or oral histories ever conducted and recorded with Ms Rector, her parents or her siblings in their lifetime? Muscogee Judge Leahy wrote back and confirmed that Porter received less than two percent of Sarahs total income, that the Rectors lived in a new, fully-furnished five-room cottage, and that Sarah and her sister were set to attend a boarding school run by Booker T. Washington. She married her second husband, William Crawford, and lived a relatively quiet life. Shes Not Madeleine: Scotland Yard Refutes Julias Allegations of Being Madeleine McCann. Sarah Rector, Kansas Citys First Black Millionairess, was known in Kansas City for her fairy tale ascension to money and fame, fine living at Rector Mansion, and reported entertaining of African American celebrities such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Joe Louis, and Jack Johnson. Editors Note: This story was originally published on February 11, 2019, EVENTS Soon, the NAACP and W.E.B. She had been born into poverty as a member of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma in 1902, and received, as did every member of the Nation, a plot of undesirable land in the territory when it was made a state in 1907. All Rights Reserved. Brown, then a grade-schooler living in a two-bedroom house with three siblings, her parents and her grandmother, marveled but didnt dare ask questions. Sarah Rector was born in 1902 near the all-black town of Taft, located in the eastern portion of Oklahoma, in what was then Indian Territory. She had been born into poverty as a member of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma in 1902, and received, as did every member of the Nation, a plot of undesirable land in the territory when it was made a state in 1907. In September 1913, The Kansas City Star local newspaper published the headline, Millions to a Negro Girl Sarah Rector, 10-Year Old, Has Income of $300 A Day From Oil, reports Face 2 Face Africa. The Muskogee Cimeter, a black Oklahoma newspaper declared, It takes an awful big man to give the Negro a square deal and Muskogees judge is such a man.. Very interesting thank you. When her fortune topped $10,000 a month at the age of 13, a probate judge appointed a white guardian for her although both her parents were still alive. . Her story spread throughout the national news, with both Black and white papers dubbing her The Richest Negro Girl in the World.. The Rector children attended school in Taft, an all-Black town. WebBorn as the daughter of freedmen in 1902, Sarah Rector rose from humble beginnings to reportedly become the wealthiest black girl in America. In 1913, however, her fortunes changed when wildcat oil driller B. Even as tens of thousands of Native Americans were forcibly relocated northwest to Indian Territory from 1831 to 1850 in the genocidal journey known as The Trail of Tears, the tribes largely sided with the Confederate states during the Civil War. Sarah wound up marrying a former college football player she met in Kansas City. At the time, Sarah Rectors net worth was estimated to be comprised of about $750,000 in oil revenue, and she was bringing in over $100,000 per year. Subscribe to Newsletter Back then, it was known as Twine, Indian Territory, since Oklahoma had not yet been incorporated as a state. Du Bois, who got involved with Sarah Rectors case when he heard rumors her money was being mismanaged by a white man. Last year we listed Elizabeth Holmes as the worlds youngest self-made woman billionaire, worth an estimated $4.5 billion. That same year, Rector enrolled in the childrens house, a boarding school for teenagers at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Rectors cut was $300 each day, a considerable amount at the time. Its too dangerous, Brown recalled. The richest kid in the world is Prince George Alexander Louis who is worth approximately $1 billion dollars as of today. This was a burden that became so great that Joseph attempted to sell Sarahs land, but was blocked from doing so by state law, which forbade the sale of lands belonging to minors. Sarah and her siblings were perfectly content staying in Taft and living a somewhat normal life, but that didnt seem to be the idea of those outsiders looking in. There were the fancy limos and Cadillacs that ferried young relatives to school and out for barbecue, the White-owned department store that opened its doors just so Sarah Rector could shop; the rolling farmland where Rector would invite Browns mother and the children for family gatherings. Later, Sarah received a phonograph, a piano and a Premier motor car, Bolden writes. Around 1906, Rector and her two siblings, Rebecca and Joe Jr., were each allotted 160 acres by the federal government, Bolden writes. Pastor Imitates Jesus Christ and Tries to Fast for 40 Days; He Passed of Malnutrition, Shelley, Woolf, and Maas: Three Feminist Writers that Turned Pain into Masterpieces. In 1913, a speculator produced a gusher on Sarahs land. At this point, her lawyers claimed that she owned $750,000 in oil properties along with other assets that pushed her worth to over $1 million. He wrote of her white financial guardian: Is it not possible to have her cared for in a decent manner and by people of her own race, instead of by a member of a race which would deny her and her kind the treatment accorded a good yard dog? At that point, she left Tuskegee and, with her entire family, moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Now, as mentioned, as Sarahs wealth kept growing, so did her fame. Sarah was born on October 23, 1974 in Woodward, Oklahoma to John L. and Carol (Machacek) Ferguson. Mansa Musa I: The Richest Man In History Was An African King, Not Jeff Bezos. Rectors life story did not need embellishment. Richest Colored Girl Forced to Live in Shack, the Defender proclaimed. Along with the oil, the checks began flowing, as if by magic, to the Rectors, who, illiterate and barely scraping by, knew little about managing money. Were from a generation where you dont spread family business, said Brown, a very fit-looking 72-year-old with a short afro seated in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Bowie, Md. Sarah Rector moved to Kansas City in 1917, where she finished high school and stayed for the rest of her life. She owned stocks, bonds, a boarding house, businesses, and a 2,000-acre piece of prime river bottomland. That equates to $7,000 $8,000 today. But, as we mentioned at the beginning, the hypocrisy of racism would soon make its appearance. Two years after Sarahs piece of land was leased to the oil company an independent driller hit a massive reserve of oil capable of producing 2,500 barrels of oil and todays equivalent of $7,000 for Sarahs pockets every day. And Kardashian has earned at least $10 million annually since 2012 from endorsement deals, mobile apps and her show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians. In 1913, the independent oil driller B.B. To be clear, Sarah still had quite a bit of money, but she didnt have the ability to throw money around like she had once. She wasnt sleeping on a dirt floor as had been reported, but the NAACP was more than concerned. Sarah Rector was born in 1902 near the all-black town of Taft, located in the eastern portion of Oklahoma,[3] in what was then Indian Territory.

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