Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche was the only known adult passenger of African ancestry who died on the ill‑fated voyage of the Titanic on April 15, 1912. A Paris‑educated Haitian engineer, Laroche put his pregnant French wife and their two daughters into a lifeboat; they survived, but he did not. His younger daughter, Louise Laroche (2 July 1910 – 28 January 1998), was among the last remaining survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
Laroche was born on May 26, 1886, in Cap‑Haïtien, Haiti. He was the son of a Haitian mother from an elite family and a French father; later retellings describe his mother as a descendant of Jean‑Jacques Dessalines, the first ruler of independent Haiti, though this is not firmly documented in primary sources. His great‑uncle, Cincinnatus Leconte, was president of Haiti from 1911 to 1912 and helped secure a position for him back home.
Raised in Haiti’s privileged upper class, Laroche received his early education from private tutors. Fluent in French, Kreyòl, and English, he decided on a career in engineering and, at the age of 15, traveled to France with his mentor, Monsignor Kersuzan, the Lord Bishop of Haiti, to pursue his training. He studied in Beauvais and Lille and completed his engineering qualifications by 1907.
In 1908, Laroche married Juliette Marie Louise Lafargue, the daughter of a widowed Paris wine merchant. They had two daughters, Simonne (born 19 February 1909) and Marie‑Louise, usually known as Louise (born 2 July 1910). Although Laroche worked briefly on the Paris Métro, he struggled to find and keep stable employment in France, in large part due to racial discrimination, and the young family was forced to live with Juliette’s father. Their youngest child, Louise, had medical problems that further strained their finances, and by 1912, Juliette was pregnant with a third child. Convinced that his prospects would be better in Haiti, where his family’s political connections could secure him an engineering post, Laroche decided they would return hom
Laroche’s mother initially sent tickets for the family to sail to Haiti aboard the French liner La France. However, because the line’s policies and accommodations were less suitable for traveling with small children, he exchanged their first‑class tickets on La France for second‑class tickets on the RMS Titanic, which would take them as far as New York before continuing on to Haiti.
On the evening of April 10, 1912, Laroche and his family boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg, France. Traveling as second‑class passengers, they had access to many of the ship’s opulent amenities and shared some of the same public spaces as first‑class travelers. Later accounts suggest that the family’s interracial marriage and visible Black presence drew unwanted attention and racist reactions from some fellow passengers and crew, though detailed documentation of specific incidents is scarce. Claims that the White Star Line later issued a formal public apology for racism toward non‑white passengers, including Laroche, appear in recent social‑media retellings but are not corroborated in contemporary records.
As the ship sank in the early hours of April 15, Laroche escorted Juliette and the children to the boat deck and ensured that they were placed in a lifeboat. In Juliette’s later recollection, he wrapped his coat—stuffed with money and valuables—around her and promised that he would board another boat, telling her they would meet again in New York. Joseph Laroche died in the sinking, and his body was never recovered. Juliette and the two girls were rescued and taken to New York aboard the RMS Carpathia; after several difficult weeks, she returned to France to live with her father. On December 17, 1912, she gave birth to their son, whom she named Joseph Lemercier Laroche in honor of his fathe
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Philippe_Lemercier_Laroche
http://www.blackpast.org/gah-laroche-joseph-phillipe-lemercier-1889-1912
