A webpage honoring baseball and civil rights legend Jackie Robinson’s military service vanished from the Department of Defense website earlier on March 19 —only to be restored later that day after drawing attention.
The removal followed recent takedowns of pages recognizing a Black Medal of Honor recipient and Japanese American service members. The Pentagon later called those removals mistakes, but they happened amid a broader effort to eliminate content highlighting contributions by women and minority groups—something the Trump administration considers part of “DEI” (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion).
The webpage details Robinson’s service in the Army during World War II, years before he shattered baseball’s color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. When users tried to access the page earlier in the day, they were met with an error message stating it “might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable.” Notably, the letters “dei” were automatically inserted into the URL.
David Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s son and a board member of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, expressed his disappointment.
“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,” he said. “We take great pride in Jackie Robinson’s service to our country as a soldier and a sports hero—an icon whose courage, talent, and strength of character helped level the playing field not only in sports but in society as a whole.”
He emphasized Robinson’s lifelong fight for equal opportunities in education, business, civic engagement, and the justice system, calling him “an American hero.”
Pentagon Responds
By the evening, the page was back online, and the Pentagon released a statement defending its recent actions.
“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” press secretary John Ullyot said. “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 to correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”
The restored page includes the story of Robinson’s 1944 refusal to move to the back of an Army bus, which led to military police intervention. He was court-martialed but later acquitted.
This isn’t the first instance of historical military tributes disappearing. A Defense Department page honoring Black Medal of Honor recipient Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers was also briefly removed before being restored by March 10.
Ullyot insisted that the Pentagon honors all service members equally.
“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,” he said. “We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We recognize their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission, like every other American who has worn the uniform.”
Ullyot also referred to DEI as “Discriminatory Equity Ideology,” calling it a form of “woke cultural Marxism” that he claims “divides the force, erodes unit cohesion, and interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission.”
The Pentagon’s removal of diversity-focused content has sparked debate, with critics arguing that erasing historical tributes undermines the very service and sacrifice of those who fought for a more inclusive military.
