NYC subway mosaics prompt debate on Confederate symbols

Times Square's bustle and cosmopolitan vibe might seem as far off from the South as one can get.

But not underground, where apparent Confederate symbols have for almost a century discreetly marked the subway station as "the basement of a Southerner."

So argues Davey Jackowe, the Civil War historian whose research exploring apparent Confederate symbolism in the subway sparked a recent debate among the New York Times, the New York Post and bloggers.

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At issue are dozens of ceramic motifs — blue crosses edged in white, against a field of red — that have festooned the 42nd Street-Times Square station since 1917.

To Jackowe, who wrote about the curious trim designs for a 2012 article in Civil War Times, they're an unmistakable homage to the late Times publisher Adolph Ochs' Southern roots.

"When you see this distinct pattern, that means only one thing," he said over the rumble of trains at the station this week. 

"It's the likeness of a Confederate flag."

Mosaics represent 'crossroads'

Social media users have posted about the curious tilework since at least 2012, commenting on a possible link to the War of the Rebellion.

At a time when the rebel flag of the South has divided the country, with South Carolina senators voting this week to remove it from the statehouse's grounds, the Confederate battle flag is as politically loaded a symbol as ever.

But is that what's represented at Times Square?

The New York Post noticed the designs last month, proclaiming in a headline to have found the subway's "hidden Confederate flags." The article quoted riders who said they were "disgusted" by the designs.

The Times responded days later, noting that it observed nearly 200 commuters walking past the mosaics on a Friday night, all seemingly "untroubled by the decorative environment."

Both articles quoted from Jackowe's research, written years before the Charleston tragedy and the current flag dispute.

As for the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority's take on the tiles? It wasn't convinced.

In an official statement, the MTA said the mosaics evoke Times Square's standing as the "crossroads of the world," and nothing more.

'Culturally dishonest'

Jackowe begs to differ, pointing to Ochs' well-publicized love for his Southern heritage as well as subway architect Squire J. Vickers' appreciation for using symbols to honour prominent figures. 

"To call these designs just geometric patterns is culturally dishonest," Jackowe said.

"Did Squire Vickers coincidentally create a likeness of a Confederate flag and then coincidentally place that coincidence in the basement of a prominent New York Southerner? How likely is that?"

Times Square was named after The New York Times, the headquarters of which, under Ochs' stewardship, once housed the original subway in 1904.

Ochs lived most of his life in Knoxville, Tenn. His father, Julius, fought for the Union; his mother, Bertha Levy, was a "Confederate sympathizer" who smuggled medicines to the rebels, according to a 2014 op-ed in the Chattanooga Times by Ochs' granddaughter, Ruth Holmberg.

In a house divided, Ochs sided with his mother's cause. When he died in 1935, the United Daughters of the Confederacy "sent a pillow, the top of which bore a flowered likeness of the Stars and Bars of the Southern Confederacy" to be placed in his coffin, according to his Times obituary.

"[Ochs] once said, 'The South is part of my religion,'" Jackowe said, gesturing to the mosaic border design. "That's an appropriate symbol for somebody who would make a proclamation like that."

Flag theory 'ridiculous'

New York subway historian Joe Brennan dismissed the Confederate flag theories as "ridiculous."

"While [Ochs] did live in Tennessee afterwards and was in the newspaper business there until 1896, that is barely Southern heritage," Brennan said. 

"Being Jewish, he would not have fit in with the growing Klan movement by that date."

Brennan questioned why other motifs repeated around the station did not receive the same level of scrutiny.

But Jackowe argues the specific colours and patterns of the Confederate flag motif would not have gone unnoticed by an artist like Vickers. 

"This is one of the most recognizable and evocative symbols in American culture," he said. 

Jackowe believes the MTA is trying to have it both ways, by stating the symbols have no meaning, while also stating they depict a "crossroads" or a convergence of subway lines.

He contends there could be a double meaning. 

"Why can't it also be a reference to the symbol of the South at the same time?" he said. "When I look at this, I think it's a tongue-in-cheek reference that we know we're in the basement of a Southerner."

Jackowe spent hours in Brooklyn's MTA archives and the New York Public Library reading about Ochs's past. He wrote his 2012 article about the subway mosaics for the Civil War Times, he said, with no political agenda.

"It was just meant to critique a work of art," he said.

'Never really noticed it'

As the Times observed, most subway commuters in a mad dash to catch the next train on a Tuesday bypassed the contentious designs without looking up.

"I never really noticed it. I don't think they're Confederate flags. It's New York City, it's not the South," said one commuter, who gave the name Barbara.

Randy Thomas did stop, if only for a moment, while on his way to the uptown platform.

"The colour scheme. You got the red, the white, the blue cross, I can see it," he said.

But did Thomas also see a controversial tribute to Southern pride?

"Not really," he said. "I usually just walk right by it. But people will find what they want to look for."