Re: African Americans -- Titanic Forum

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Date Posted: 21:05:40 06/04/07 Mon
Author: Reggie
Subject: Re: African Americans
In reply to: Keley Johnson 's message, "Re: African Americans" on 23:22:07 07/27/02 Sat

>How many blacks were on the titanic when it went down? >hello I would like to know if there were any African
>>Americans (black people) aboard the Titanic?
>Titanic exhibit teaches a new lesson in black history
>Denise Meridith
>
>Many people ask me where I get my ideas for the
>column, and I reply that everyday I am provided with
>fodder that illuminates the history, lifestyle and
>future of African-Americans in Arizona.
>
>
>
>
>Just recently, I attended the incredible "Titanic --
>The Artifact Exhibit" at the Arizona Science Center,
>and the topic for today's column was literally handed
>to me. At the start of the exhibit, attendants are
>given a facsimile of a White Star Line ticket issued
>to a passenger on the Titanic. One of your objectives
>is to discover whether the person survived or not. I
>think it was fate more than deliberate action (since
>the young docent was more hassled and concerned over
>making sure attendees got the right gender cards than
>anything else) that I got the ticket of Miss Louise
>LaRoche. This was significant because at the end of
>the exhibit, 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.
>
>
>
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>
>
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>
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>
>
>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."
>
>
>Denise Meridith is CEO of Southwest Dimensions Inc.,
>Phoenix.
>
>
>
>
> Copyright 2001 American City Business Journals Inc.
>Click for permission to reprint (PRC# 1.1639

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