Black community denied WATER for decades, jury says (1956 - 2003)

Breeze54

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Sat Jul-12-08 08:19 PM
Original message

Black community denied WATER for decades, jury says (1956 - 2003)

Edited on Sat Jul-12-08 08:26 PM by Breeze54

Black community denied water for decades, jury says

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/11/civil.rights.water.ap/index.html

Fri July 11, 2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) --

Residents of a mostly black neighborhood in rural Ohio were awarded nearly $11 million Thursday by a federal jury that found local authorities denied them public water service for decades out of racial discrimination.

President Kennedy urged civil rights in 1963. An Ohio
community was discriminated against from 1956 to 2003.

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.

"As a child, I thought it was normal because everyone done it in my neighborhood," said one of the plaintiffs, Cynthia Hale Hairston, 47. "But I realized as an adult it was wrong."

Colfax described the verdict as unique among civil rights cases nationally, both in the nature of the ruling and the size of the award.

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.

Zanesville attorney Michael Valentine said in court that he intended to appeal but declined to comment further. The county commission also plans to appeal.

Attorney Mark Landes, who represented the county and water district, called the verdict disappointing. He said jurors were not allowed to hear defendants' testimony that neighborhood residents were offered water service years ago and refused it.

Colfax said he was unaware of any evidence that was excluded from the trial.

"This was a case that was started and fired by out-of-town lawyers who saw an opportunity for a cash settlement," Landes said.

The plaintiffs' attorneys will receive a separate amount to be decided later by a judge, Colfax said.

John Relman, a civil rights attorney based in Washington, D.C., who represented the residents, said the jury heard hours of testimony and saw hundreds of pages of documentation over the seven-week trial.

"This verdict vindicates that this (treatment) was because of their race," he said. "The jury agreed with that and issued a verdict based on a full airing of the facts."

Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers said she was pleased.

"This decision speaks firmly about the importance of treating citizens with equal respect, regardless of race," she said in a statement.

Plaintiff Frederick Martin said the long wait was worth it.

He and his nine siblings shared two tubs of water between them on bath nights when he was growing up. He left Coal Run, built on a former coal mine, in 1970 so his children wouldn't have to endure the same living conditions, he said.

"Today I feel that we are really blessed, to know and to see justice being met," Martin said.

"And to see, regardless of who we are, there is a price to pay if you discriminate against people."

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.

Landes countered that about half of Muskingum County residents are not tied into the public water system even today. Among those without it are county commissioners, judges and other prominent officials, he 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.

:grr: :cry: for all their years of suffering

and :applause: :applause: for finally getting justice!!

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Breeze54

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Sat Jul-12-08 08:28 PM
Response to Original message

1. Guy with $2.5 M gets 14 Recs.- this story of poverty and racial dicrimination gets ZERO !!

Edited on Sat Jul-12-08 08:28 PM by Breeze54

Very telling....

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T.Ruth2power

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Sat Jul-12-08 09:06 PM
Response to Reply #1

5. Yes

It's a matter of who(m) one identifies with. Despite some of the half-baked contortions ultimately most folks have been programmed to identify with the slave master.

K&R

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whistle

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Sat Jul-12-08 08:44 PM
Response to Original message

2. In an Ohio County that has been noted for its KKK leanings

<snip>
Ohio Grapples With Cost of Klan Rallies
Spate of Events Drains Police Budgets
The Associated Press/October 9, 1999

Columbus, Ohio (AP) -- When the Ku Klux Klan came to Defiance, the city prepared for an invasion.

More than 250 police officers from several departments near the small northwest Ohio city came to keep the peace between at least 300 protesters and 41 Klansmen.

The hourlong rally March 20 by the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was uneventful, but peace came at a cost of $17,500 in overtime and other expenses, such as fences.

Defiance, a city of 16,000, is not alone in spending lots of money to ensure that a relatively small number of Klansmen can safely hold a rally. With nearly two dozen Klan rallies so far this year, the bill for taxpayers has reached about $800,000. In 1994, the state received reports of 32 events involving the Klan and four involving other white supremacist groups. There have been at least 20 Klan events this year.

Almay said rallies died down after 1994 because a pivotal Klan organizer went to prison for beating an ex-girlfriend. The resurgence this year, he said, is partly due to James Roesch, an outspoken 18-year-old who calls himself Imperial Wizard of the American Knights of the White Kamellia. Klan members aren't looking for trouble

Roesch said Klansmen don't ask for police protection, and anti-Klan protesters are the ones trying to provoke fights and rioting."All we ask is to give our speeches," said Roesch, who lives in Rushylvania. "There's many ways a city could save money. The way they spend money is ludicrous."

But even if protesters stayed away, officials say, they would have to prepare for confrontations anyway.

"If you don't have adequate protection, things get out of hand and you catch a lot of criticism for that. If you're adequately prepared, you catch a lot of criticism from people who say it's overkill," said Defiance County Sheriff Dave Westrick.

Crowd control plan institutionalized
After years of refinement, the state now provides an "off the shelf" plan to communities for dealing with rallies. The plan includes advice on crowd control, security and how best to separate protesters, Klansmen and the media, said Ted Almay, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

Now the state is also promising to help cut costs
Attorney General Betty Montgomery said her office, for the first time, will make free metal detectors and fences available for use during rallies. Her office spent $8,000 on two walk-through detectors, six handheld detectors and several miles of chain-link fencing.

Almay said the goal is to "ease the burden of the small towns. A city like Columbus, we'll help with intelligence and we'll help that day get things together, but when you go to Urbana or places like that, this is devastating."

Cleveland spends a half-million on protection
The biggest cost to date has been in Cleveland, which said its Aug. 21 rally cost more than $537,000, mainly in overtime for police officers, street and water department employees, and other workers.

By contrast, a May 1 rally by the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Zanesville - population 28,000 - cost the city $7,500 and the Muskingum County Sheriff's Department an additional $25,000.

"It is an unfortunate waste of taxpayers' money to have to do that, but in order to keep the city safe and officers safe, it's something you have to do," said Zanesville Police Chief Diane Quinn.

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., said the number of Klansmen who show up rarely matters since they are always going to draw large protest crowds, whether or not communities ask people to stay away.

Getting the Klan to pay
Attempts to recover the cost of rallies from the Klan itself have met with limited success.

In June 1992, in a case involving a white supremacist group in Forsyth County, Ga., the Supreme Court said communities that impose permit fees for parades and rallies can't charge more for controversial groups just because they might need more police protection.

Following a 1996 Klan rally in Ann Arbor, Mich., the city billed both the Klan and an anti-Klan organization $72,000 for the cost of security. The city never started collection action but hasn't ruled out the possibility, city attorney Abigail Elias said.

Montgomery said there are real legal problems "in terms of billing a particular group which is exercising its First Amendment rights, and selecting out one group because we don't like it and saying, 'We'll protect you, but we're going to charge you,' but other groups we don't charge."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/kkk/kkk13.html

<More>
http://www.rickross.com/reference/kkk/kkk13.html

<scroll down to Ohio, it's continuous>
http://www.adl.org/learn/Events_2001/events_archive_by_year_print.asp?Year=2003
http://www.adl.org/learn/Events_2001/events_archive_by_year_print.asp?Year=2004
http://www.adl.org/learn/Events_2001/events_archive_by_year_print.asp?Year=2005
http://www.adl.org/learn/Events_2001/events_archive_by_year_print.asp?Year=2006
http://www.adl.org/learn/Events_2001/events_archive_by_year_print.asp?Year=2007
http://www.adl.org/learn/Events_2001/events_archive_by_year_print.asp?Year=2008

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Breeze54

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Sat Jul-12-08 08:50 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. That doesn't surprise me in the least. OH is well know for the KKK

as are adjoining states. I'm really glad the people in this small town
won this lawsuit. $$$$ is justice. Hit them in their pocketbooks.

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goforit

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Sat Jul-12-08 09:04 PM
Response to Original message

4. OMG!!!....This is unbelievable!!

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Breeze54

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Sun Jul-13-08 02:59 AM
Response to Original message

6. ------------>

:dem:

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