Former US Ambassador Andrew Young is one the most iconic leaders of the 20th century. He was leading by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s side during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-1960s, first African American mayor of Atlanta, GA, first African American US Ambassador to the United Nations, and responsible for mentoring generations of leaders in the church, public, square, and beyond. He is also an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ who pastored for decades. Hear his thoughts on Dr. King’s historic March on Washington during its 60th anniversary and learn about Dr. King’s legacy through the Share the Dream project from UMI, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, and the K.I.N.G. Movement which has been widely shared since its release.
Sarah’s Oil is a true black history story of fame and fortune. Sarah Rector was a young Black girl with tremendous faith who made a fortune becoming the youngest black millionaire in segregated America. Her story is important history that was rarely told until now, and thanks to a committed group of creators, her story is now being told in movie theaters across the country. UrbanFaith sat down with one of the producers of the film Sarah’s Oil, Derrick Williams, to talk about the film’s impact and message of faith and fortune. The film is now playing in theaters everywhere and it is important for us to support and share our history!
More about the film is below.
SARAH’S OIL is a biographical drama inspired by Tonya Bolden’s 2014 book Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America. It tells the extraordinary true story of Sarah Rector, a girl born in the 1900s in Oklahoma Indian Territory, who believed she had oil beneath her inherited land—and was proven right, setting off a battle for ownership and legacy. But Sarah’s story is more than one of wealth: it’s about courage, community, and a fierce belief in her own worth in the face of a society determined to overlook her.
“I think the thing that so appealed about this story is that she is a child,” says writer Betsy Nowrasteh on how the story is framed. This is intrinsically Sarah’s story. “She brings that child’s energy, that child’s hope, and that uncorrupted child’s vision of things. She isn’t cynical, she isn’t skeptical. She just has a clarity of vision that adults lose.”
Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh (The Stoning of Soraya M., The Young Messiah) and co-written with Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, the film assembles a world-class team both behind and in front of the camera. The ensemble cast stars Zachary Levi, Sonequa Martin-Green, Garret Dillahunt, and Bridget Regan, and introduces Naya Desir-Johnson as Sarah Rector. SARAH’S OIL was shot on location in Oklahoma during Summer 2024, with key scenes filmed at historic sites in Okmulgee and Bristow, grounding the narrative in the land and legacy that shaped Sarah’s life.
Sarah’s living descendants have been integral to the development of the film and deep supporters of SARAH’S OIL.
Diane Euston, a family historian who has long documented Sarah’s place in local history, delivered a poignant interview connecting personal legacy with public record. She beautifully summarized Sarah’s spirit by saying: “This movie does such a great job of showing how the story really is about not giving up – and when somebody says no, you go find someone that’s going to say yes. Sarah did not accept ‘no’ in her life. She found a way… she always found a way.”
This film is not just a period drama. It is a powerful rendering of undertold history and a reclaiming of the past — a film powered by the legacy of Sarah Rector, the passion of her descendants, and the joint vision of Amazon MGM Studios, Kingdom Story Company, and Wonder Project.
Coming to theaters November 7, 2025, SARAH’S OIL reminds us that when the world says no, faith finds another way.
“The people who I want to see it the most are little Black girls all over the world,” says Naya, who dazzles in her breakout role. “When they see this, they might be like, ‘Wow, maybe I can do—’ like, if they have a dream in mind, they’ll be like, ‘I can do this too.’”
Cheryl McKissack Daniel is the latest in a 200+ year old legacy of Black architects, engineers, construction workers and designers who have literally built some of the most iconic structures in America. UF contributor Maina Mwaura sat down with her to talk about her book The Black Family Who Built America: The McKissacks, chronicling her family’s history and heritage of being black builders in the United States and beyond.
UrbanFaith Editor Allen Reynolds spoke with Dr. Terence Lester about his new book From Dropout to Doctorate: Breaking the Chains of Educational Injustice. He addresses generational trauma, past and current educational injustice, and wisdom for young people trying to achieve from difficult circumstances. The excerpts from the interview below have been edited for length and clarity.
Allen
Can you talk a little bit about why conversations around generational trauma and immediate trauma from environment are more important than ever for students as they’re trying to get an education?
Dr. Lester
Yeah, so very unique question. I normally answer this, because when we talk about trauma, trauma itself can be many things. And so, I normally talk about trauma in terms of, I guess, two lanes, right? You have historical trauma, right? This is the collective and cumulative emotional harm experienced by a group of people over time. So like this can be caused by systemic oppression, violence, marginalization, right? You have the impact of things like Jim Crow, redlining, you know, the genre type of laws that actually created barriers for people of color, specifically black people or people who derive from historically marginalized communities. Let’s take for instance, if you were born in a predominantly poor or impoverished environment, chances are there may be a food desert. Chances are you might not have [adequate] access to healthcare. Chances are that the school systems that you may frequent are underfunded, right? And so that can be historically designed due to things related to racism, oppression, and things like that. I argue in the book that this creates the environment for generational trauma to happen. You know, when you grow up in a food desert and you don’t have access to nutritious foods. And that impacts your health. Or you grow up in an environment where the environment itself is being divested or gentrified and you don’t have access to some of the things that are coming in. And that impacts your occupational journey. You grow up in environments where there’s a lot of lack. And so that can create more of the generational trauma that could be passed down. I was telling this story the other day to this guy. My grandmother is 93. She’s still alive. And she talks to me often. She still walks two miles a day. She text messages me and we have these very in-depth conversations. And she talks to me about how she grew up not being able to walk over to the water fountain or not being able to work in certain stores in the community that we live in…that black and brown people frequent these days, or not being able to go to certain parts of town. And that kind of informed how she made decisions, what school she went to or did not go to. That informed how she raised her children. That informed her ability to dream beyond some of the oppression that she is talking to me about today because obviously I’m living in a time where I can pursue more things. I have to fight a little harder, but she’s given me an opportunity to look into her life and see through her lens and how she is describing some of the generational trauma that is passed down based on the historical trauma that our ancestors had to face. And so those things are important to me. And I think it’s important too to be trauma informed. And when I talk about being trauma informed, I’m talking about creating environments that are safe. Where people feel emotionally and physically safe and secure. I’m talking about trustworthiness and transparency, where people are able to communicate and articulate their own narratives without it being edited through a single narrative lens. I’m talking about having support and collaboration and a sense of empowerment and cultural humility, right? Because being trauma informed is asking the question: what happened to you versus what’s wrong with you? And I think most times that lack of awareness doesn’t create the opportunities where we can really understand the context of a community, but also how to show up and support those who may be still struggling.
photo credit Dani Guerra
Allen
Can you talk about what you’re seeing and why that’s still valuable? Why is education, especially after high school, still valuable as a tool for helping us to break free and help to break down some of these systems?
Dr. Lester
Yeah, I think you’re right that we should call out that when political shifts happen and you pull resources from those who are poor or those who need it most, it puts them at a greater disadvantage. We have seen these types of funding cuts and political shifts impact students who are marginalized, specifically those who come from historically marginalized communities. We’ve seen this impact on students who are living with disabilities. We’ve seen reduced staffing when it comes to the Department of Education, which was a sector of government that was to uphold this promise of equal education to its populace or its citizens. The protection of several civil rights, the protection of students who genuinely want to receive an education. I think to answer your question, education is still beneficial, whether it’s the traditional route or independent scholarship. Education gives you the ability to dream beyond your circumstances. It gives you the articulation or the critical thought. To give a social critique of what’s happening in today’s society. Education can grow you in your character, in your integrity, in your worldview, right? It expands your perspective. It allows you to travel into communities that you’ve never been a part of to understand how people think. It gives you a perspective of the global economy or what ML King describes as the global village, right? It opens us up to be able to see the world through multiple lenses instead of allowing us to have a narrow focus. I think education itself gives you the skills needed to pursue particular career paths. I think education is able to build you up in ways that you could not otherwise be built up had you not had direct contact to those who have had the proper training. I think one of the things that I’m fearful of right now is that social media has given everybody access to self-assert themselves as experts. Sometimes we see people online and they will say, “I’m a person that helps people heal.” But they’ve never gone through clinical training. They don’t have an understanding of theoretical approaches. They don’t have the training in diagnosing someone. [What if] somebody says, “I’m a pilot. I’m a self-taught pilot.” Would you hop on a plane with someone who has not gone through aviation school? And so, I think there’s some benefits still when it comes to education because it allows you to have that expertise and that training that you can’t get from any other place.
However, I still do believe in independent scholarship. I believe that there is a sector of people who are disciplined enough to read and to understand concepts without a traditional instructor. I still do believe that people are starting to tap into entrepreneurship and really create and build their own tables. And I think that is a form of hands-on education that you can’t get through any other means but by lived experience. And so, I believe in the both and, right? I’m an entrepreneur, but I’m also a scholar. I’m a practitioner, but I’m also an academic. And I often say in the educational space that I’m a practitioner scholar because I was practicing the work and doing the work long before I had any philosophical inquiries. And so, I think they both can be beneficial. I don’t want to exclude a group of people who don’t feel education is their path, but I don’t want to exclude the group who says education is for me. I think there are non-traditional students and there are traditional students and both are valuable.
House of David is another successful Biblical drama released to the world through Prime Video and the collaboration between the Wonder Project and Amazon MGM studios stays true to the Biblical foundations while bringing the best of Hollywood drama. I know as a Bible teacher and minister myself that as I have read the story of David it has tremendous power to teach us about God and humanity. In seminary one of my professors explained that David’s story is one of the greatest dramas to come out of the ancient world and its ability connect deeply with people and tell a full story across the years while using very few words is truly remarkable.
In House of David Season 2 episode 1 what is only about 10 verses of the Biblical story is fully developed into an epic episode of battle and transition as the Philistines are defeated and David is brought closer to the throne of Israel. As I watched I was most impressed that details of the Biblical story that I remembered as a biblical expert were weaved into coherent characters and relationships that sustained my interest and the larger story. Seeing the nods to Saul’s descent into madness, David’s relationship with Jonathan and Saul’s daughter Michal, Samuel aging as a judge and now only prophet, and the David’s growth from shepherd to solider are all captured well. I appreciate how this telling of David’s story doesn’t shy away from the importance of prayer, faith, and God’s intervention while at the same time feeling so deeply vulnerable and human. I. think House of David does a good job balancing respecting the sacred text while building a world that is captivating for people who may not know the Bible story well.
If you are interested in a true epic drama that is also in line with your faith and convictions, House of David is a great watch. It is certainly violent without being gory, and tense without being overwhelming. It reminds me of the Lord of the Rings films in its ability to sustain characters and action, while remaining more drama than action or fantasy. If you wanted to see this epic story brought to life for our modern world using the best of production techniques, House of David is a great watch. The trailer is below and the series can be watched on Prime Video.
