THE ONLY BLACK MAN TO DIE ON THE TITANIC

The Laroche Family

Miss Louise Laroche A Haitian French Family Which Traveled in Second Class Aboard Titanic Miss Louise Laroche was an Honour Member of the Titanic Historical Society from the beginning until her death in 1998. Since she could not speak English, correspondence over the years was thin. When a young man from France joined the Titanic Historical Society who spoke fluent English, Edward Kamuda asked Olivier Mendez if he would pay her a visit and her story was published originally in the Titanic Commutator in 1995.     The Titanic Historical Society receives inquiries from time to time asking if there were any black passengers onboard. The answer is yes and contrary to popular assumptions, the family traveled in second class. I found out that Louise's father was the only black passenger on the Titanic. Joseph LaRoche, the nephew of the President of Haiti, was born there in 1889. He received his engineering degree in France and married a wine seller's daughter, Juliette. As a black man, LaRoche had few opportunities for employment as an engineer, and with two daughters -- Simonne and Louise -- and another child on the way, he decided to move the family to his native Haiti. LaRoche's mother purchased first-class tickets for them on the La France ocean liner. Since children had to eat separately in the dining arrangements on that ship, the LaRoche family exchanged the tickets for second-class tickets on the new ship, The Titanic, where families could stay together. Most of the second-class passengers (The Titanic was the most expensive ship with the best first class suites costing more than $70,000 in today's dollars) were successful business people and community leaders. So, as with so many issues that surrounded the sinking of the Titanic (the lookouts forgetting their binoculars, the iceberg puncturing six compartments when the ship would have survived with up to four damaged ones, not having enough lifeboats, the ship traveling too fast, etc.), it was a fateful combination of factors that led to the LaRoche family being on board April 14, 1912. LaRoche was able to get his family into one of the last lifeboats (thus my ticketed passenger "Miss Louise LaRoche" was on the list of about 700 survivors at the end of the exhibit), but he was among the more than 1,500 that died, many of hypothermia in the freezing ocean water. Juliette and the children returned to France where they lived in poverty until 1918, when the White Star Line gave her a settlement, which would have amounted to $254,000 today. Reportedly, she lived in fear and mourning the rest of her life until her death in 1980. "My passenger," Louise, grew up to work for the Justice Department in France. The most fascinating aspect of this whole story is that few people ever knew there was a black passenger on the Titanic. Upon return to France, the LaRoche family maintained a tradition of not talking about it. None of the press or witness reports mentioned a black passenger. LaRoche's body was not among the many recovered after the sinking. Most of the information I've cited comes from the work of historian Judith Geller. LaRoche's story was not revealed until the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and the Titanic Historical Society staged this exhibit in 2000. The LaRoches and other black passengers were the subject of discrimination on the Titanic, as they had been on shore. The White Star Line issued an apology about derogatory behavior of the crew towards these people, even as the ship was sinking. Controversy in the black community surrounded the opening of the exhibit here in Phoenix, because reportedly LaRoche's story was not highlighted in the exhibit, as it had been in other parts of the country. The Arizona Science Center said the problem was lack of time to put up all the material, rather than deliberate omission. They promised to correct it. Whatever the reason, it would have been ironic if Joseph LaRoche were ignored again, 89 years after the demise of a ship that was labeled as "practically unsinkable." A picture of the LaRoche family: Mr. LaRoche presumably sank with the Titanic. Mrs. LaRoche and the two daughters survived. There is a fascinating account of the family here: http://www.titanic1.org/people/louise-laroche.asp  Beyond that, I am not aware of any other black passengers. There is an oral legend about a black boiler room worker named "Shine" (who survived through his cannyness), but that apprears to be apocryphal.