Lefora Free Forum
Loading

There was a Haitian man on the Titanic.

COMPOSE REPLY
2 Posts • Page 1 of 1 1

matrixone05
founder - Tidal Wave

Posts:3039
Joined:26 July 2008
quote reply / 

There was a Haitian man on the Titanic.

#0, by matrixone05, 03 June 2009 02:25 AM

When I hear about little known facts I like to share them. Enjoy… 

 Foxy shared this with me, I am sharing with you.

Imagine that...............no one knew, like most of history, we were excluded.

 

You've seen the movie TITANIC starring Leonardo DiCaprio but did you know?http://www.haitianinternet.com/album.php/45Joseph Phillippe Lemercier Laroche

There was a Haitian man on the ship! His uncle was President of Haiti! Joseph Phillippe Lemercier Laroche was the only black man, a Haitian man, to perish in the Titanic; that's after he saved his wife and kids. Laroche was born in Cap Haitian,Haiti, on May 26, 1889.

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."

The story of this interracial family was not known until 2000, three years after the movie's release, when the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry and theTitanic Historical Society revealed the information as part of a Titanic exhibit.

Joseph Laroche was born into a powerful family. His uncle, Dessalines M. Cincinnatus Leconte, was the president of Haiti. When Joseph Phillippe Lemercier was fifteen, he left Haiti to study engineering in BeauvaisFrance. Several years later, he met Juliette Lafargue, the 22-year-old daughter of a local wine seller. The two eventually married. Despite having an engineering degree, Joseph's skin color left him unable to find employment in France. The Laroche’s decided to return to Haiti and booked second-class reservations on the Titanic. After the ship struck an iceberg, Joseph loaded his wife and children onto a lifeboat and he went down with the ship. His body was never recovered.

Shortly before Christmas of that year, Juliette Laroche gave birth to their son, Joseph Laroche Jr.

Juliette never remarried. 

God gives nothing to those that keep their arms crossed. ~ African Proverb.
All that is not given, is lost ~ Indian Proverb
Score: 0

dancera
privileged member - Riding the Wave

Posts:539
Joined:29 September 2008
quote reply / 

Re: There was a Haitian man on the Titanic.

#1, by dancera, 03 June 2009 02:56 AM

here is a small fact you all may not know. The Titanic sank, nearest to my city. The remains of the bodies found were buried right her in Nova Scotia. I was just telling my love that as we visited tourist type places.

The famous cove where Swiss Air crashed the Titanic burial, and some more up beat things..

my 2 cents of history lol

Score: 0
COMPOSE REPLY
2 Posts • Page 1 of 1 1

Locked Topic


You must be a member to post in this forum

Join Now!