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February 28, 2019 3:54 PM

Brandie Course writes: The story of Joseph Laroche is one that has, until relatively recently, been largely forgotten in Titanic memory and discourse. The lingering question concerns why this is the case. You would think that seeing a black man walking the decks of the ship with a white woman and their offspring would make a lasting impression on Titanic’s passengers, particularly the first- and second-class passengers, but little mention is made of Laroche or his family.

Zondra Hughes, for Ebony: What happened to the only black family on the Titanic?

In the blockbuster film Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio's role could have easily been played by a Black man--and it would have been historically accurate. In fact, the life story of Haitian native Joseph Phillippe Lemercier Laroche is far more intriguing than the movie's lead character, but no one knew of his existence until recently. The silence about the stranger-than-fiction life story of the Titanic's only Black passenger astonishes noted Titanic historian Judith Geller, author of Titanic: Women and Children First, who said, "It is strange that nowhere in the copious 1912 press descriptions of the ship and the interviews with the survivors was the presence of a Black family among the passengers ever mentioned."

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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.

posted by ChuraChura (9 comments total)

Just when I think I've heard all the stories on the Titanic......very interesting, thank you.
posted by annieb at 5:59 PM on February 28, 2019

"It is strange that nowhere in the copious 1912 press descriptions of the ship and the interviews with the survivors was the presence of a Black family among the passengers ever mentioned."

Really? In 1912 society 2500 white folks die and one black guy dies and no one focuses on the black guy. In 1912. This is strange?

In the context of the "Titanic" the Movie, it was a rich girl/poor boy trope. Joseph Phillippe Lemercier Laroche had a family, so it's not even the same movie. Seems like he needs his own movie. I would watch it.
posted by kjs3 at 6:45 PM on February 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

The canonical story about black people and the Titanic is this one: that the White Star Line excluded them from boarding. As Leadbelly sings it:
http://www.folkarchive.de/titan13.html
Laroche, being a Haitian in Europe, must have encountered and overcome such blocks countless times.
posted by homerica at 11:55 PM on February 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

Fascinating article, thank you.

I didn't know what Course meant when she referred to "the Titanic toast and Shine," so I looked it up and learned about the African-American toast tradition for the first time. Here's a long version of the toast mentioned in the story.
posted by daisyk at 1:28 AM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

The time's casual racism is hardly surprising, given that although the ship's passengers were almost 100% white, news coverage at the time emphasized how the Anglo-Saxon passengers were brave and dutiful while other European nationalities -- Italy, Hungary, and so on -- were the rabble that tried to rush the lifeboats.

In one of the early scenes in Titanic, set in the steerage compartments, there's a shot of a Chinese man looking at the wall signs in confusion. In fact, there were at least eight chinese passengers on the Titanic, six of whom survived the sinking. One survived in the water clinging to a floating door until he was picked up by the lifeboat commanded by Fifth Officer Lowe -- one of only a handful of survivors to be rescued thus. Four of the others survived on board one of the collapsible lifeboats, among the last to be launched, and it was said they they were found "hiding" in the bottom of the boat, where there was actually hardly room to do so.
posted by Gelatin at 2:35 AM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

Looking at the photographs taken in 1910 by Louise Laroche's grandfather, Monsieur Lafargue, one cannot imagine the small house where the last French lady survivor of Titanic was living was still there wedged in between a modern glass government building and a row of older homes. [...] The house at 131 Grande Rue was rented by the year.

I never heard of that story before (a mixed-race family in Villejuif in the 1900s! Titanic survivors!) but I should, because I live 200 m from there and I know this house! The THS article makes it clear that Lafargue and the Laroches lived here, and that it was occupied by Juliette and Louise until their deaths (in 1980 and 1998 respectively; they're probably buried in the local cemetery). The house is still there but it's fallen into disrepair and has been used by squatters in the past years (you can watch it fall apart since 2008 :( ). I'll send a mail to the local historian.
posted by elgilito at 4:54 AM on March 1, 2019 [13 favorites]

elglito, that is the coolest!!!
posted by ChuraChura at 5:12 AM on March 1, 2019

Just to comment on the mention of Shine, here's a very short version from The Corner, performed by Clayton LaBouef.
posted by goofyfoot at 5:58 PM on March 1, 2019

A new biography is coming out on April 15:

Black Man on the Titanic: The Story of Joseph Laroche
posted by elphaba at 4:15 PM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]