Pentagon removes, then restores webpage on Jackie Robinson's military career
The Defense Department removed and then restored a webpage recognizing the military career of sports legend Jackie Robinson amid a purge of diversity, equity, and inclusion content from across the department's social media and websites.
The URL for a story on Robinson in the Defense Department's "Sports Heroes Who Served" series on Wednesday morning redirected to a URL that included DEI in front of the rest of the address – deisports-heroes-who-served-baseball-great-jackie-robinson – and said "Page Not Found." As of Wednesday afternoon, it was restored.
The removal and restoration comes after a Pentagon memo on February 26 directed a digital refresh of all Defense Department web pages to remove "all DoD news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)."
An archived version via the WayBack Machine of the story on Robinson shows the article highlighted that he was drafted during World War II in 1942 and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit at Fort Riley in Kansas and then joined the 761st "Black Panthers" tank battalion at what was then Fort Hood, Texas. At Fort Hood, now Fort Cavazos, he faced a court martial for refusing to move to the back of an Army bus but was later acquitted. He served until 1944.
Robinson became the first Black American to play in Major League Baseball when he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and then later went on to have a storied 10-year career.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot on Wednesday addressed growing backlash to the removals of pages about Robinson, the Navajo Code Talkers, Tuskegee Airmen, Marines at Iwo Jima in a statement that said, "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."
But he added, "We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like every other American who has worn the uniform."
The role of Jackie Robinson's race in his personal story and heroism is important given what he had to overcome during Jim Crow America to serve in the Army and later integrate baseball. As the bio on the Defense Department webpage notes, the Brooklyn Dodgers club president told him "he'd have to be willing to withstand the inevitable racial abuse that would be directed at him because there were no Black players in Major League Baseball."
The Pentagon had removed and then earlier this week restored a webpage honoring Major General Charles Calvin Rogers who is the highest-ranking Black recipient of the U.S. military's highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor.
Ulloyt said in a statement to CBS News that pages would be restored "in the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period."
The guidance, however, is unclear. For instance, the page for Major General Rogers that was restored still highlights that Rogers is the highest-ranking Black Medal of Honor recipient.
Earlier this year, the Defense Department faced backlash after the Air Force briefly removed videos of the Tuskegee Airmen from basic military training to review them for compliance with President Trump's anti-DEI executive order.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a tweet agreed with Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt that the removal was "malicious compliance" with the executive order and that the Tuskegee Airmen's service should be recognized.
The Air Force quickly restored the videos after the review to focus on the "documented historic legacy and decorated valor with which these units and Airmen fought for our Nation in World War II."