Celebrating Black History Month: Sarah Rector, first black millionaire in Oklahoma

Sarah Rector, born March 3, 1902 in Indian Territory near what is now Taft, Oklahoma, was the granddaughter of Creek Indians who were born before the Civil War.  Under the Treaty of 1866, she inherited land. However, the plot of land allotted to her was unsuitable for farming, and about 60 miles from where she and her family lived.

To help allay costs of property taxes, her father leased Sarah's land to the Standard Oil Company in February 1911.  In 1913, oil was discovered, with a daily yield of 2500 barrels of oil, and $300, which would be equivalent to $9,800 in 2023. Sarah became a millionaire before she was 12, the richest little girl in Oklahoma.

Because of her wealth, the Oklahoma Legislature tried to have her declared white, since many white people could not handle the thought of a young, black girl being rich.

After an article about her appeared in The Chicago Defender, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois became concerned for her welfare, and wanted to be sure she was not taken advantage of.  DuBois established the Children's Department of the NAACP, which investigated claims of white guardians suspected of depriving black children of their land and wealth. 

Rector enrolled in the Children's School, a boarding school at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and entered the institute upon graduation. She increased her wealth by owning stocks, bonds, businesses and a 2000-acre piece of land. 

She moved her family to Kansas City, Missouri and lived a comfortable life, entertaining celebrities such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington.  During the Great Depression she lost much of her wealth, but she became involved in the civil rights movement.

She passed away in 1967.

Celebrating Black History Month: Boley, Oklahoma, early predominantly black pioneer town 1905

Boley, incorporated in 1905 in what is now Oklahoma, is a predominantly black pioneer town in Okfuskee County, west of Oklahoma City. When it was established, people with Native American ancestry were also among its citizens. That area of Indian Territory was settled by Creek Freedmen, who ancestors had been held as slaves of the Creek at the time of the Indian Removal in the 1830s. The US government negotiated treaties that required tribes to emancipate their slaves and give them tribal membership. 

The Fort Smith & Western Railroad approved a station stop at an ideal location for a township, where the land was used for agricultural purposes.  Boley, Creek Nation, Indian Territory was incorporated in 1905, named for a railroad official J.B. Boley.

In the early 20th century, Boley was one of the wealthiest black towns in the nation, including two banks, three cotton gins, an electric company, and two colleges: Creek-Seminole College and Methodist Episcopal College.  By 1911, its population was over 4000. 

After WWI, the railroad went bankrupt, and since Boley was dependent upon it, the town went bankrupt in 1939 during the Great Depression. 

Today, its population is around 1100 people and is still one of the state's few remaining historic African-American towns.  Pumpsie Green, born in Boley, Oklahoma, was the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox. 

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Alexander Posey, Creek poet and journalist

Alexander Posey, born August 3, 1873 in Indian Territory, near what is now Eufaula, Oklahoma, was a poet, journalist, politician, and satirist in late 19th century and early 20th century.  He grew up speaking Muscogee as their first language but later, his father insisted he and his siblings speak English.  

Posey attended Bacone Indian University in Muskogee, Oklahoma where he studied writing. In 1901, he founded the Eufaula Indian Journal, the first Native American daily newspaper.  He wrote a series of letters which were published in the Eufaula Indian Journal from a fictional persona, Fus Fixico, satirizing the political climate between Indian Territory and the US government.  When the Dawes Act and the Curtis Act of 1898 were enacted to dismantle tribal governments to make way for statehood for Oklahoma, the Five Civilized Tribes met to draft a constitution, which Posey wrote, to establish an indigenous-controlled State of Sequoyah.  The proposal was rejected by the US Government and President Theodore Roosevelt.

Posey drowned while trying to cross the flooded North Canadian River in April 1908.