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UrbanFaith x Sarah’s Oil Interview
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.’”
The Black Family Who Literally Built America
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.
From Dropout to Doctorate: UF x Dr. Terence Lester
Dr. Terence Lester photo credit Dani Guerra
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.
Learn from The Past: Urbanfaith x Courtney B. Vance and Jamaal Bernard
These are excerpts from an interview transcribed and edited for clarity and length from Jamaal Bernard’s Offscript Podcast submitted by UF contributor Maina Mwaura. Jamaal interviews acclaimed actor Courtney B. Vance about his new audible reading of W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 by David Levering-Lewis now available on audible. The full interview can be watched or listened to anywhere you find podcasts.
Jamaal Bernard
I’m so excited I’m here. A new episode of Offscript with a special guest, a friend, a friend for years. You see me grow up and Courtney B. Vance. You’re doing a piece for an amazing man, a man who is such a great individual, great inspiration, a great legacy within the community of people of color. And I love this because we have the young individuals, the further I think we get away from certain time points and period in history, the least amount of effect it has on generations, right? And what you’re doing here with this project is an amazing, amazing thing. So thank you so much for that, for my kids’ kids. Tell me a little bit about this project. –
Courtney B. Vance
You know, you talk about what we, you know, the further away you get from, you know, I’m a history buff, I love big biographies. And I didn’t know anything about W.E.B. Du Bois. If you go in black people’s homes, you know, post 1963, up to, you know, 2000 or so, they have a picture of Jesus and a picture of MLK on the wall. Prior to ’63, that was Jesus and W.E.B. Du Bois. That’s how big he was. And I didn’t know that. [It’s amazing] how quickly and how easily we forget and erase people. When he died in Ghana, the president of Ghana gave him a state funeral, on the same day that MLK was delivering his I’ve a Dream speech. The [most prominent] man pre MLK was leaving and MLK was ascending. And they were both at [living] at the same time. They were leaving and ascending at the same time. And for us not to know who he was, that’s how things can repeat. That’s how we lose a sense of who we are, because we don’t continually revisit. We say never forget. And in the information age, we say that and it’s scary. And then that’s why I love history.
Jamaal Bernard
So, [you read] this story, and then putting it on audible, genius idea, right? God used you, inspired you to act. How does your faith, you know, help you navigate the arena? Because you’re an actor, right? You are on big screen, you’re on the stage, now you’re doing audio books and whatnot, and this probably won’t be your last audio book. So how does your faith help you navigate this arena?
Courtney B. Vance
It’s all about my faith. It’s all about our faith. That allows me to stay calm when I don’t know what’s next or what’s happening, or is this the right choice to make? Is this the right timing? Is the timing right to actually ask, can we go in this direction? I don’t panic. As when the disciples were rowing across the, and they were on the one side, and Jesus said, you know, I’ll see you on the other side. He just didn’t tell them that they were gonna go into the storm. But if he says, I’ll see you on the other side, you know that despite the storm, you’re gonna get to the other side. Storms of life happen to all of us. We’re in a storm now, but we will get to the other side of it. Just like, and that’s why I read biographies to actually see how people dealt with the storms in their lives.
Jamaal Bernard
I was gonna ask, can you correlate your experience with something that you, with this project, with W.E.B. Du Bois, and the storm that he’s going through?
Courtney B. Vance
The storm he went through was…he was born a generation removed from slavery. And people at the time were, white and black, were figuring out, is it W.E.B. Du Bois’ way, or is it Booker T. Washington’s way? You know, which is the agrarian, do the trades, and it’s a combination. But white folks at that time were, scared. ‘Cause bottom line, it’s all about the vote. We don’t wanna educate them too much so that they start to come into our areas and impact our lives in terms of making sure that white folks always have what they need, and that they don’t have to answer to black people. So, [they] don’t want them to be engaged, but [they] don’t want to seem like we’re trying to keep them down. So, they were, as our director Christina said, they were figuring it out as they went along. The country was trying to figure out what direction it’s going. It’s fresh out of the Civil War, [W.E.B.] came into his own, into college. [It’s around] 1885, that was a generation removed from the Civil War. So, [white Americans are] trying to get there, but are [they] really helping black people? Are you just helping yourself? Are you only giving money, these rich philanthropists to causes that keep black people down? Or are you giving them to causes that help bring black folks into the mainstream? That was the dilemma.
From the Streets to the Steeples: UrbanFaith x Living for We
UrbanFaith Editor Allen Reynolds had the privilege to interview Marlene Harris-Taylor and Myesha Watkins, co-hosts of the Living for We: Keep Ya Head Up Season 2 Podcast. This season confronts how communities are working together to prevent and intervene in the cycles of gun violence that disproportionally impact urban areas. The co-hosts share stories and insights on how churches and people of faith can play a key role in Community Violence Interventions (CVI). You can stream the Living For We podcast wherever you get your podcasts or watch on Youtube and more information on the series is available at Evergreen Podcasts
The excerpts below have been edited for clarity and length. You can watch the full interview above.
Allen
You all talked a lot and gave us what this season is all about focusing on gun violence. Why is it important for us to still be talking about this with so many other things going on in our world?
Myesha
Prevention saves lives. Like when you think about gun violence, one of the things me and Marlene spent a lot of time talking about is like the underlying issues. What are the root causes of violence? Lorenzo, who’s [a] guest on our show, he said he lost his best friend, Caden Coleman, who was 10 years old, to gun violence. And he said, “sometimes we just need a hot meal.” When you think about communities where food insecurity is high, and you’ll have [someone] who is like,
“We get food stamps. My mom had to sell her food stamps in exchange for cash because we don’t have cash. So, I go to the corner store, and I steal peanut butter and jelly. And from that instance, now I’m being impacted by the system because I did a theft. But the root cause was that I was hungry.”
So, when we think about the overall crises that are impacting all our communities, this is all interconnected. And when people put CVI (Community Violence Interventions) to the side to act like it’s not a response to lack of resources, lack of accessibility to stable housing or healthcare or food, then they’re crazy. What we’re trying to do is show them how all of this is connected from several lenses. And I think Marlene can talk about the different lenses that we brought to the couch. Like it was more than just community.
Marlene
Yeah. And I also want to say that there’s sometimes there’s people who say, well, you know, gun violence is down, you know, we look at the overall stats nationally and in our large urban centers, gun violence is down. But that all depends on where you live. Yeah. For people in certain communities and certain zip codes, gun violence is not down in their world. They’re still hearing shootings every night. They’re still losing friends and family to gun violence. And for the people who live in those communities that are not directly impacted, and they think, well, that’s not my problem, because I don’t live in those areas. Gun violence doesn’t care, you know, a bullet doesn’t care who you are. So many times, the violence, the gun violence that is impacting these communities comes to other parts of the city. None of us are safe unless all of us are safe.
Allen
Myesha, any words of wisdom for you on how you saw faith play a role in this work of doing violence prevention?
Myesha
I would say too, and all that Marlene has shared, we have had church on the couch several times, praise God! There’s a national organization called Live Free USA whose main job is to bring faith leaders and violence prevention [organizations] together and not for it to be viewed as separate. And I think churches, especially in black communities, are on every single corner. And we are calling on pastors or calling on people to save not only from the pulpit, but also from the blocks. How do you come out and show that you have a safe space? You have a brave space, and your only goal is not to just preach to eulogy. But how do you speak life as a young people in an accepting way by calling them in to say there are other options and faith is one of them. I just went to the in Cincinnati. I’m here, the national underground railroad freedom center. And even on the posters, at the hardest times as a black person, you see that faith was at the center. When things get hard as they are right now in these moments, especially around gun violence and this administration, black people tend to just cling a little bit closer to God. So hopefully faith leaders are saying, “I know exactly where I need to be.” And even if that’s doing community walks and praying around the radius of my church, that’s enough to show the presence of God. It’s just not in church, but it’s wherever believers are. And so, I’m excited about the work that Live Free USA is doing, the conversations that are happening on this podcast, because it’s going to be some, “amen and thank you Jesus,” but thoughts and prayers by themselves are not enough. But collectively with lived experience and other organizations, thoughts and prayers can go a long way.
Allen
What advice would you give to young people who want to make a difference in their communities, especially around issues like this of breaking that cycle of violence or even making the impact so they can create safe and brave spaces?
Marlene
Well, I’ll start by saying you can begin at whatever age that you are in whatever space that you are in doing the work. Our episode that just dropped today featured young Lorenzo that Myesha brought up earlier, 10 years old. This young man lost his best friend to gun violence, and he decided he wanted to go talk to the mayor. He asked his mentor to go buy him a suit. So, he dressed up in his best suit, went to a community meeting with the mayor, and many other city leaders were and challenged them to say, what are you doing to save people like me? He’s like, will I die? Will I be like my best friend? And I got to tell you, Allen, he riveted the entire room. He ended up with a standing ovation from that speech. And he has been on several media outlets since then. He is already making a difference at 10 years old. So, no matter what age you are, no matter what your circumstances, by speaking out, by getting involved in this work, you can make a difference in your community.
Myesha
There are so many Lorenzo’s in our communities. Like, how do we see those skills and build them up? I think about young people who are able to organize a group of people to do anything that may not be the safest. How do we utilize those same skills as an organizer to do those things well? So young people have skills that they may not be utilizing in the right way as of now, but are skills of amazing leadership. How do we speak to that to say, “you have these great skills. I see you doing something else with them. But what would it look like to give you resources to do something well with them to keep your community safe?” So, I guess my message to young people is you are not the problem. This is a systemic and generational issue. This is caused [by] underinvestment and divestment. This is [caused by] generational trauma that is in our bodies. But what we can control is how we respond to interpersonal conflict. Interpersonal conflict and the urgency to respond to disrespect is at the all-time high. If I tell you, Allen, I don’t like your glasses, you can be so offended that you may want to handle this conflict with a firearm. How do we say it’s not worth it? Your comments aren’t worth it. Your attacks are not worth it. Nothing is worth losing my life. So, to young people who are listening, disrespect should not be the reason that you lose your life or take someone else’s life. There are other options, so many amazing options. And we actually need you. It is necessary for you to live. It’s necessary for you to be here. And it’s very unnecessary for you to risk your life or someone else is because of a conflict. It’s very preventable. And I know it sounds simple because when I was your age, I probably wouldn’t let nobody talk to me crazy. But I lived a little bit more and I want you to live. We’re here for you. I hope our podcast serve as a listening ear and a space of dialogue. But yeah, just live a little bit more so you can see that some of the decisions and choices that you are making is not worth it because baby, listen, if Instagram was around when I was younger, I probably would be in trouble. I’m glad that I’m here to tell the story. So, stay safe. We want you to be alive and free.
Marlene
Myesha, I’m so glad you mentioned Instagram because one of the things that we’ve learned. I’ve learned is so many times people get into beef on Instagram that then comes out into life. And then, something that started as this small beef on Instagram becomes somebody losing their life as a result of it. Social media is driving a lot of this, but she’s right. The systemic things behind it are really what’s driving the gun violence in our communities. And we need to know that that it’s not our fault that our communities have been under this strain of underinvestment that is there’s been this prison from school to prison pipeline that has taken so many men out of our communities. We heard over and over again from the young men who are guests on the show, that they didn’t have a father, that they were raised by their mother. And they felt this real pressure at a young age like 10, 11, 12, to help their family to survive. And many times that’s why they picked up the gun. They were just trying to survive and help their family survive. And that’s a theme we hear over and over on the program. People need to know there’s not their fault that they’re in that situation.