Sixty-seven residents in the majority black neighborhood of Coal Run in Ohio have just been awarded a total of $11 million by a federal jury, which found that a the local government had denied them public water service because the were black. Each plaintiff was awarded between $15,000 and $300,000 to cover monetary loss and pain and suffering that occurred between 1956 and 2003, when the town finally received public water. Prior to 2003, residents were forced to dig wells, collect rain water or haul water for cisterns in order to cook, clean and bathe.

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 defendants said that the residents were offered public water years ago and refused it, because, of course, anyone would prefer cooking with rainwater to using faucets. [MSNBC]