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Elev8 told you the story of the first  Harvard graduate last month. Now we bring you the story of a lucky black man and a sinking famous luxury liner named Titanic.

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There was a black man on the Titanic and no one knew about. 100 years later, and not much has changed for Christine LeBrun.

Lebrun’s ancestor is believed to be the only black man in attendance that tragic day the luxury liner sank.   But according to LeBrun, 35, of Palatine, this detail is still generally disregarded, despite the numerous duplicated narratives.

LeBrun, an alumni relations director for a Catholic high school, was sitting with her uncle Robert’s wife in a hair salon in 2000 when her ancestry began to unfold.  Her aunt, flipping through a magazine, spotted a photo, integrated in an article about an exhibit on the Titanic that had opened at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.  The image struck her because it reminded her of her husband.

That man happened to be Joseph Laroche, a Haitian-born, French-educated engineer, with his pregnant wife, Juliette, 22, and their two daughters LeBrun’s aunt and showed the photograph to her husband, Robert Richard, who quickly recognized the last name.  Richard’s daughter, Marjorie Alberts, began conducting research.

In search for a job, Laroche decided to move his family of four from France to Haiti.  His mother had sent the family first-class tickets to travel on the French liner France, but upon discovering that they wouldn’t be allowed to dine with their children, they traded their tickets for second-class tickets on the Titanic. Click here to read more

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The Story Of The Black Man Who Was In Second Class On The Titanic  was originally published on elev8.com