Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche, a Haitian-born, French-trained engineer and a close relative of the president of Haiti, is believed to have been the only Black passenger in the Titanic. He died during the ship’s sinking, while his pregnant wife, Juliette, and his two daughters, Simonne and Louise, survived and returned to France, the country he was trying to leave to look for better professional opportunities in his native Haiti.