A web page dedicated to Black baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson was removed and quickly restored on the Department of Defense’s website.
The move comes as the Trump administration works to eliminate anything it considers “diversity, equity and inclusion” from the U.S. government, with President Donald Trump referring to DEI initiatives as “immoral discrimination programs.”
Pages dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, the Enola Gay aircraft, the Navajo Code Talkers, prominent female fighter pilots and the Marines at the Battle of Iwo Jima were also removed.
“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others – we salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot told HuffPost.
“We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex,” he added. “We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like [every] other American who has worn the uniform.”
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell sent a memo last month requiring the removal of “all DoD news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)” by March 5.
Since then, tens of thousands of references to U.S. war heroes and military achievements, particularly by women and minorities, have been selected for removal, according to The Associated Press.
Prior to that, in January, swaths of government websites went dark or had essential information related to gender diversity, sexual health and climate change removed from them, HuffPost previously reported.
On Monday, Parnell said: “I think the president and the secretary have been very clear on this — that anybody that says in the Department of Defense that diversity is our strength is, is frankly, incorrect.”
“Our shared purpose and unity are our strength. And I say this as somebody who led a combat platoon in Afghanistan that was probably the most diverse platoon that you could possibly imagine,” he added.
Robinson, the first Black player in modern Major League Baseball, famously repped the number 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1947 to 1957. According to the Jackie Robinson Museum, he later became the first Black man to be a vice president at a Fortune 500 company when he began working at Chock full o’ Nuts.
Robinson’s page on the Defense Department website was published in February 2021 as part of a series titled “Sports Heroes Who Served” and has since been restored. It focuses on his military service after he was drafted during World War II and his achievements as a legend in Major League Baseball.
However, NBC News notes, other Defense Department web pages dedicated to Robinson were taken down. At least one of the pages, which detailed Negro League players’ experiences in the military, was not back online at the time of writing.
Robinson’s son, David Robinson, released a statement on Wednesday in response to the erasure of content about his father.
“We were surprised to learn that a page on the Department of Defense’s website featuring Jackie Robinson among sports heroes who served in the military was taken down,” said David Robinson, a board member of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. “We take great pride in Jackie Robinson’s service to our country as a soldier and a sports hero, an icon whose courage, talent, strength of character and dedication contributed greatly to leveling the playing field not only in professional sports but throughout society.”
“He worked tirelessly on behalf of equal opportunities, in education, business, civic engagement, and within the justice system. A recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, he of course is an American hero.”