For all those people who seem to think that their is no racism in America, take note of this recent jury award. According to media reports, residents of a mostly black neighborhood in rural Ohio were awarded nearly $11 million by a federal jury that found local authorities denied them public water service for decades out of racial discrimination.
Each of the 67 plaintiffs was awarded $15,000 to $300,000, depending on how long they had lived in the Coal Run neighborhood, about 5 miles east of Zanesville in Muskingum County in east-central Ohio. The money covers both monetary losses and the residents’ pain and suffering between 1956, when water lines were first laid in the area, and 2003, when Coal Run got public water.
The lawsuit was filed in 2003 after the Ohio Civil Rights Commission concluded the residents were victims of discrimination. The city, county and East Muskingum Water Authority all denied it and noted that many residents in the lightly populated county don’t have public water. Coal Run residents either paid to have wells dug, hauled water for cisterns or collected rain water so they could drink, cook and bathe.
The jury in U.S. District Court found that failing to provide water service to the residents violated state and federal civil rights laws. The lawsuit was not a class-action. Colfax said 25 to 30 families live in Coal Run now. The water authority must pay 55 percent of the damages, while the county owes 25 percent and the city owes 20 percent, plaintiffs’ attorney Reed Colfax said. The water authority no longer exists, and the county would be responsible for paying that share of the judgment.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys successfully argued that the decision not to pipe water to the plaintiffs was racially motivated, painting a picture of a community with a history of segregation. Black residents of Coal Run Road were denied water over the years while nearby white neighbors were provided it, they said.
Zanesville has about 25,000 residents on the edge of the state’s Appalachian region. One in every five families is below the federal poverty level, and the unemployment rate in Muskingum County in May was 7.4 percent. The national unemployment rate that month was 5.5 percent.
I remember Zanesville very clearly. I went to Ohio University for my undergraduate studies and one of my best friends lived in Zanesville during that time. I recall that the city was very segregated with blacks living on one side and whites on the other side. My friend’s father owned his own business and purchased a house in a predominantly white neighborhood. They were greeted by crosses being burnt in their yard, though it never deterred the family and they stood steadfast.
Filed under: Coal Run Village, Discrimination, Zanesville
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