That same year, Rector enrolled in the Childrens House, a boarding school for teenagers atTuskegee InstituteinAlabama. 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. She purchased a house on 12th Street, known as the Rector House, which is currently owned by a local nonprofit, with the intention of restoration and historical and cultural preservation. In 1913, the independent oil driller B.B. Like most other dealings the government had with Indigenous Americans, it was not entirely honest. The couple had three sons before divorcing in 1930. Rector now received an income of $300. Jones struck a gusher on Sarahs land that produced 2,500 barrels a day, which gave Sarah a whopping daily income of $300. The White-owned newspapers across the country heralded young Sarah as the worlds richest Negro girl and gushed about her supposed fairy-tale life, all the while suggesting she was unworthy of it. When she turned 18 on March 3, 1920, Rector left Tuskegee and her family relocated to Kansas City, Missouri. The richest kid in the world is Prince George Alexander Louis who is worth approximately $1 billion dollars as of today. Nicks herself had an affair with Mick Fleetwood in early 1978 while he was married to Jenny Boyd. But the land given to the Freedmen was of generally inferior quality rocky and unfit for farming, hardly worth the tax burden. Dubois, founder and editor of the NAACPs Crisis magazine, set out to discern whether the reports were true. This was an irrevocable law so that Oklahoma could be integrated into US territory. . Sarah Rector was born in 1902 to a freed black couple, Rose McQueen and Joseph Rector. Rector died at the age of 65 on July 22, 1967. 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. [12] Thus, as soon as Rector began to receive this windfall, there was pressure to change Rector's guardianship from her parents to a local white resident named T.J. (or J.T.) Busting the Myth Behind Moctezumas Headdress; Did It Really Belong Him? Of course, people never stopped trying to take advantage of Rectors fortune. Currently, no one has yet claimed trillionaire status, although some of the worlds richest individuals may only be a few years away from this milestone. The Wichita BeaconNewspaper articles about Sarah Rector spread throughout America and were filled with the casual racism of the era. She owned stocks, bonds, a boarding house, businesses, and a 2,000-acre piece of prime river bottomland. It became known as the Rector Mansion, Bolden told the New York Amsterdam News. 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. Rumors even claimed that she was a white immigrant girl that was being kept in poverty. They drive by the abandoned Rector Mansion, boarded up and falling into disrepair, wishing that they could find a way to buy it back and bring it to its former glory. She divorced Campbell and married restaurant owner 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. When Sarah reached legal age, a judge found her mentally sound and capable of managing her own affairs. Her issues with disputed guardianship continued in Kansas City, but most stemmed from greed and not legitimate concern for her welfare. 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. Before her wealth and fame, Assuming that, Sarahs acres seemed to be useless; little they everybody know, there was actually an oil field worth a fortune. 1886), and by 1907, they were living in a two-room cabin outside of Taft, population 250, on Roses land allotment. Connecting Oklahoma's Electric Cooperative Communities, Mailing Address: [13] In October of that year, she was enrolled in the Children's School, a boarding school at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, headed by Washington. By the early 20th century, the Creek Freedmen, as they were known, had settled in all-Black towns dotting Indian Territory,which in 1907 became the state of Oklahoma. This is Sarah Rector, she said. She was declared as a white person so she could fit in the socialit circles of her time. By then, Rector owned stocks and bonds, a boarding house, a bakery and the Busy Bee Caf in Muskogee, Okla. He had lived in the home for over 17 years. In October 1914, Rector enrolled at the Childrens House, a boarding school for teens at Tuskegee Institute. Sarahs acreage, divided into two parcels near the bend in the Cimarron River, did not appear to be an exception. Rector's allotment subsequently became part of the Cushing-Drumright Oil Field. Rectors notoriety ballooned just as quickly as her wealth. In turn, Joe was able to talk his wife (allegedly) into paying his $8,000 bond plus $2,000 in expenses to go to Tampico, Mexico and get his half. Jones started to assemble the necessary equipment to check out Sarahs land near the Cimarron River. Sarah Rector was born in 1902 in what is today Taft, Oklahoma. Then, in the fall of 1913, an independent driller struck liquid gold on Sarah Rectors land, bringing the family royalties of $300 per day, about $8,000 today. Gina Dimuro is a New York-based writer and translator. Oklahoma City, OK 73154-1309, Portraits of African American businesswoman Sarah Rector | Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Upon graduation, she attended the Institute. [6] Sarah Rector was allotted 159.14 acres (64 hectares). How Sarah Rector Became The Richest Black Girl In America In The Early 20th Century. Her final resting place in the ground was back where the story beginsin Taft, in a peaceful parcel of land known as Blackjack Cemetery. She can afford it. She never said she was rich.. Why Do Cross Country Runners Have Skinny Legs? The Creeks called them Estelvstethe Black People. [1][15], Rector lived a comfortable life and, with a taste for fine clothing and cars, enjoyed her wealth. Rector was about 16 then and not half-Creek. The truth was that her parents were given money monthly to take care of her, and a new five-room home was being built on land purchased. Jeff Bezos is the founder of both Amazon, the worlds largest retailer, and Blue Origin. According to historian Tonya Bolden in her biography Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America, Jefferson had been the familys benefactor for years and long before there was any probability of them every having money.. Missing endangered juvenile from Red Bridge area, Ruskin High School novelist has six books on Amazon, Florist discusses the future of Fiddly Fig and Teefey Flowers, Medical marijuana grow farms approved for south KC, How Angolas Warrior Queen Nzinga Fought Against Colonial Forces In Africa & Other History Lessons I Learned In Lockdown The Witty Poet, Learning from the Unspeakable: Teaching Ideas Centered on the Tulsa Race Massacre - The Classroom Bookshelf, A garotinha negra e pobre que virou branca e rica antes do Michael Jackson | Contraditorium, America's First Black Millionaires - Grunge - Wealth Santa, America's First Black Millionaires Grunge Financial Consultant, America's First Black Millionaires - Black Source Media, Food Pantry on Wheels @ Marlborough Community Ctr, Hedwig and the Angry Inch @ The Arts Asylum. Thats the way she would put it. She even generated $11,567 in October 1913. In 1887, the state declared the Dawes Allotment Act, which established that all Creek Freedmen minors had to be granted land. According to Tonya Bolden, author of Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America (Harry N. Abrams; $21.95), Rector began earning more than $300 a day in 1913. Except for a short time in Missouri, she lived all of her life in Woodward and she had attended Woodward schools. While Oprahs massive fortune wasnt built on acting, alone, she deserves to make the list. It would be wonderful to see a bio about her!. For a hundred years, these photos have depicted Sarah Rector, the Richest Black Girl in America. The fallacies kept cropping up and, worst of all, that pesky photo. She had five siblings. Who was the real Sarah Rector, The Richest Black Girl in America?, Missing in Action: Local artists painting of Patrick Mahomes stolen, UPDATE: Shakir is safe. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. Women of Power TECH, PODCASTS The devastation of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Many Freedmen eked out a living raising corn, cotton and other common crops. Were no interviews or oral histories ever conducted and recorded with Ms Rector, her parents or her siblings in their lifetime? Rector was already a millionaire by the time she had turned 18. If theres a lesson for others in her legacy, its in the importance of financial literacy, she said. The White-owned newspapers, seemingly unconstrained by facts and at times human decency, were openly racist in their coverage. EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Limited Or Anthology Series, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie. After the Stock Market Crash, a major dent was put into the finances of the Rector family. More intriguing, what happened to this young African American woman who was part of the Creek [Indian] freedmen? Claim #2: China is a Good Faith Peacemaker . [4] Sarah Rector died in 1967 from a stroke at the age of 65. The entire frontage of 12th St. from Euclid to Garfield was bought by Rector money and rented out to people for additional income. Sarah wound up marrying a former college football player she met in Kansas City. Jones produced a gusher on the land. The land became part of the famous Cushing-Drumright Oil Field and it propelled Rector into both spotlight and scandal. Rector married the first of her two husbands at the age of 20 and bore three sons, all now deceased. SistersInc. National ArchivesA typical cabin for Creek Freedmen on Muscogee (Creek) Nation land in Oklahoma, similar to where Sarah Rector would have been born. Yet depending on the publication, the family was either senselessly rich or persistently poor. This will help towards getting the correct info out there. The couple had three sons and were recognized as local royalty, driving expensive cars and entertaining elites like Joe Louis, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie at their home. Kansas City, Missouri Manuel and Joe arrived in Mexico on Joes dollar but all the money evaporated while trying to target this land in Tampico. 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. 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. Her sudden wealth became the object of racist news coverage. [3] Rector and her family relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, and settled in a large stone American foursquare home located at 2000 East 12th Street that still stands today. Evidently the color of an heiress does not matter if the color of her gold is genuine, wrote Edward Curd, Sarahs attorney. But unbeknownst to anyone else at the time, Sarahs land had a wealth of oil sitting just below the surface. What happened to Sarah Rectors money? Sarah entertained Duke Ellington, Joe Louis and Count Basie in the house that soon became known as the Rector Mansion. Although the image can be traced to the 1915 issue of the The American magazine, a now-defunct White-owned publication, Brown insists it is not her aunt. Kansas City Du Bois, who got involved with Sarah Rectors case when he heard rumors her money was being mismanaged by a white man. Sarahs cut per day was $300. When Sarah was 18 years old, she had a fortune estimated at $1 million, the equivalent of $11 million today. Consider Little Sarah Rector, Unkempt, Illiterate, 12-year-old child, Half Negro, Half Creek Indian, read a 1918 article published in the Enid (Oklahoma) Events, managing two errors in the opening lines. Joe wasnt in the best of health, but when a friend from back home named Jim Manuel was serving time in the penitentiary, he contacted Joe and claimed to have property in Mexico that had been found to have oil on it. Black Men XCEL Shed yet to become a millionaire, crossing that threshold at about 18, with oil earnings that would be worth $14 million today. 1901-1967), a native of Oklahoma and a woman known as the first black female millionaire to live in Kansas City, lived in this American foursquare at 2000 East 12th Street. The most vexing bit to Brown: the black-and-white photo of the somber-faced girl with pigtails wearing a dark plaid dress. Defeated, he sobbed all the way to Dallas on a train where he ended up in Baylor Hospital. Wanting to have the real scoop on Sarah, the Defender published an article claiming that she was an uneducated girl dressed in rags raised by ignorant parents who had given a white man all rights to her state. 1906). His petition was denied because of certain restrictions placed on the land, so he was required to continue paying the taxes. Soon, the wells, which would come to number in the dozens, were pumping 2,500 gallons a day, with about $300 a day a 12.5 percent cut flowing Sarahs way, Bolden writes. He also concluded that the men that wrote her were fine looking chaps.. 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. 2,500 barrels a what happened to sara recor, which established that all Creek Freedmen minors had to be an exception OK,... 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