An article honoring Jackie Robinson’s military service was briefly scrubbed from the Department of Defense site before being restored, with officials calling its removal a mistake.
The piece was caught in a sweep targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content, following a directive from President Donald Trump, as reported by the New York Post.
Part of the “Sports Heroes Who Served” series, the article highlighted Robinson’s World War II service and his trailblazing impact as Major League Baseball’s first Black player in 1947.
RELATED STORIES
Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot defended the Department of Defense after the removal of Robinson’s article, stating that “everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson.”
He also acknowledged that pages honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo Code Talkers, and Marines at Iwo Jima were also taken down during the content sweep.
“We salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop,” Ullyot said in the statement. “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 ever other American who has worn the uniform.”
Ullyot also referred to DEI as “Discriminatory Equity Ideology” and added that it “divides” and “erodes” cohesion among the unit.
READ ALSO: Indiana mother arrested for attacking son’s ‘bully’ on school bus
“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” he 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 and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”
The Department of Defense article, Sports Heroes Who Served: Baseball Great Jackie Robinson Was WWII Soldier, detailed Robinson’s military service, including his assignment to a segregated Army cavalry unit and his 1944 arrest for refusing to move to the back of an Army bus.
He was later acquitted in a court-martial and honorably discharged that same year. Robinson’s legacy remains deeply ingrained in American history, with Major League Baseball retiring his No. 42 league-wide and honoring him annually on Jackie Robinson Day, celebrated every April 15.
Last month, former President Donald Trump announced plans to include a statue of Jackie Robinson, along with other notable Black figures, in the proposed National Garden of American Heroes.
During the announcement, Trump described them as “generations of Black legends, champions, warriors and patriots who helped drive our country forward to greatness.”
