Is that Shine sittin' over there with that white 'wawmon! What's that? 'Say it ain't Shine? Who it be, then, 'cause errrbody know Shine was the only Negro on the Titanic, and I know Stag-o-lee and that 'sho ain't him!
For far too many years, the prevailing thought was that the only black man that could have been on the Titanic would have been in last class shining the shoes of somebody in first class. For African Americans, the running joke of the period was that of Shine and the Sinking of the Titanic. Some of us know that Shine is one of the most well-known trickster's in African American folklore. His name could refer to the dismissive nicknames given to any of the many black men who shined shoes (or it could have indicated that his skin was so black it was shiny). Relegated to the boiler room, Shine was stoking the fires when the first sign of disaster struck the luxury liner. After repeated warnings to the ship's captain about the encroaching waters down below, Shine wasn't surprised to find his concerns routinely dismissed as usual. In the ensuing chaos, Shine's services were increasingly enlisted, but by then he'd taken a serious attitude. Each request for help was met with an exceedingly ribald rhyme, and through his innate cunning, Shine emerges as the sole survivor "drunk on the corner of 125th St." by the time the ship met its icy fate. Whatever! The truth of the matter couldn't have been more dramatically different. Haitian-born, French-educated engineer, Joseph Phillippe Lemercier Laroche was a second-class passenger on the Titanic with his French-born wife and two little girls. Hardly known among the general public, their existence has always been known by a handful of Titanic historians but not talked about. Leonardo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet's characters from the 1997 blockbuster movie were fictional, but everything about Joseph, his wife Juliette, and their girls, 3-year-old Simmone and 1-year-old Louise was very real, indeed!
Joseph Laroche was directly descended from Haitian royalty ~ the bloodline of Jean-Jacques Dessalines (left). Dessalines was one of the major leaders of the Haitian Revolution between 1791 -1804. Too early to be televised, this revolution was most definitely live as thousands of black slaves successfully revolted against French colonization on the isle of Saint-Domingue, and thus became the first republic ruled by the descendants of Africans. With the iconic Toussaint L'Ouverture as their leader, Dessalines was his chief officer. When Toussaint was eventually captured by French troops, Dessalines assumed leadership and in 1803, Napoleon was defeated. Elected by a council of generals primarily made up by the second-tier mulatto class, Dessalines became the Governor-General of the new independent nation. But this wasn't enough! Dessalines proclaimed himself Emperor of Haiti, and continued the pattern of violence established under the former colonial rule. For his cabinet, 
Dessalines needed literate and educated officials, and placed in these positions well-educated Haitians, who were disproportionately from the light-skinned mulatto class, who often had close family ties with the French. They married among each other and the Dessalines clan would remain among the aristocracy for the next 100 years. It is from these ranks that Joseph Laroche stepped. Indeed, at the time of the sinking of the Titanic, his uncle Dessalines Cincinnatus Leconte (bottom left) was president of Haiti. Leconte is now considered as the country's most productive president of the early twentieth century, before his early death in a freak explosion.
Joseph Laroche wasn't born until May 26, 1886. In 1901, at the age of 15, he was sent to France for an education, as so many young men of the black upper classes were. Within a few years, he met Juliette Lafargue, the daughter of a prosperous wine merchant. While impressed with Laroche, father Lafargue did not allow his daughter to marry him until he completed his degree in engineering in 1908. It is believed that for all of his culture, credentials and pedigree, Joseph Laroche could not buy a job in France, but he was employed for awhile on the building of one of the early Metro lines in Paris. But it wasn't enough to support a growing family! He wanted to go back home to Haiti and take his family with him. The move was planned for 1913, but that year (1912) Juliette discovered she was pregnant again. Back in Haiti, Joseph's mother was happy about it! Surely, she must have felt like she was doing the right thing when she immediately purchased first-class tickets for them to sail home on the French liner La France. Right before departure Joseph learned the ship did not allow children to dine with their parents. Surely, he felt like he was doing the right thing when he switched their passage at the last minute for second class tickets aboard the Titanic.
The Titanic was the largest and most lavish ship that had ever been built up to that date. The style of the decor ranged from Italian Renaissance to Geogian, and the cost of a first-class parlor suite was $4,350. First class boasted some of the richest folk in Britain & America on with a collective wealth of over $500 million. The Laroche's boarded this luxury water palace on April 10, 1912, and for the next three days enjoyed the ship's splendor. Yes, they were in second-class but they shared many of the same amenities as the first class passengers. They dined in the same saloon as the first class passengers and their lounge was large and spacious with sycamore paneling on the walls. According to a few survivor reports, the Laroches conversed freely with some of the other passengers, and fellow shipmate Kate Buss wrote home "There are two of the finest little Jap(anese) baby girls who look like dolls running about". They were charming and good-looking but they did not totally escape racism aboard, especially among the crew members who reportedly centered the focus of their sickness toward all the "darker-skinned" passengers, and no doubt, Laroche was the darkest of all. Regardless, after a 9:00PM, April 14th seating for dinner, the couple would dine together, and enjoy together for the last time.
We all know the story! If I attempted to write what happened next (and do it justice) this would be the longest post in the history of this blog! Shine tried to warn them! When the iceberg hit later that evening, Shine went straight to the captain several times, but Captain Edward J. Smith, master of the Titanic was arrogant and adamant. The builders of the ship, the White Star Line, had issued press throughout the world that the ship was "designed to be unsinkable" and everyone believed it! They felt superior and invincible and they subsequently failed to take the proper precautions; they only had enough lifesaving equipment for 1,178 of the 2,228 passengers and crew. The original plans called for 64 wooden lifeboats but that number was reduced to 16 so that passengers could look cute and have more mobility about deck. Of the total number of people aboard the Titanic, only 706 survived, and 1,517 perished. It is also popularly believed that the men stood gallantly by and allowed the women and children to be saved first, but this is not quite the truth, either. First-class men were four times as likely to survive as second-class men, and twice as likely to survive as third class men. Nearly every first class woman survived compared with 86 percent of those in second class and less than half of those in third class. Everyone had a better chance of being saved than a third class child with only 34 percent of the those children surviving.
When the water finally reached Shine's head he was downstairs eating his bread. "Captain, Captain, the water is now up to me head." Captain said "Shine, Shine sit your black ass down. Got ninety-nine pumps to keep the water down." Shine took off his shirt and started to dive. The captain's wife came over to Shine "Shine, Shine save poor me. I'll give you all the pussy you can see". Shine said "Your pussy is good and this is true, but it's some hoes down in Harlem that'll make an ass outta you." Even the captain relented "Shine, Shine, I'll make you richer than any shine can be." Shine said "Captain, to save you would be very fine, but I got to first save this black ass of mine." Shine jumped in the water and met up with a shark. Shine say "you may be king of the ocean, king of the sea, but you gotta be a swimming muthafukka to outswim me".
Joseph Laroche was among the 166 second class passengers to die. His body was not one of the ones recovered in the aftermath. Juliette and the girls were saved! Without diapers, food and among wailing widows and floating bodies, Juliette clung to her children but her feet were frozen blue and stiff. Some say they were in raft 14, some say raft 16, but they were rescued six hours later by the RMS Carpathia and delivered to safety in New York City. There was nobody there to meet them! They received medical attention at St. Vincent's Hospital, and were provided with shelter, money, clothes and food by a well-know philanthropist. Juliette Laroche returned to France pregnant to live with her father, and a week before Christmas, Joseph Lemercier Laroche Jr. was born. Judith Geller, author of Titanic: Women and Children First, writes "that nowhere in the copius 1912 press descriptions of the ship and the interviews with the survivors was the presence of a black family among the passengers ever mentioned." Juliette would enter a long legat battle with the White Star Line. Geller says "Lawyers came and went, no settlement arrived and Juliette, with her three children, lived in poverty through 
the first World War." In 1918, the White Star line eventually awarded Juliette Laroche about $22,119 - the eqivalent of close to $300.000 today. She never remarried any mention of the Titanic was strictly off-limits. Neither daughter ever married or had children. Juliette Laroche died in Paris, 68 years after the Titanic tragedy in 1980. Daughter Simonne preceeded her in death in 1973. Joseph Laroche Jr. is the only one who married and sired Laroche offspring. He died in 1987. In 1998, Louise Laroche (left) was present when the Titanic Historical Society dedicated a stone marker in Cherbourg commemorating Titanic passengers who sailed from its port. She died that very same year at the age of 87. There is no evidence that any of the Laroche's ever traveled to Haiti or ever heard from their Hatian relatives again. They thoroughly assimilated into European culture.
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