The Department of Defense removed numerous pages highlighting the contributions of Black, Native, and female service members earlier this week.
Controversy arose when a page honoring the legacy of Jackie Robinson was no longer available on the Department’s website.
Robinson served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, fighting both for the country’s freedom and against segregation within the military. He then went on to become one of the first Black players in Major League Baseball, breaking barriers and making history.
When the Department of Defense removed the webpage honoring him earlier this week, Jackie’s son David defended his father’s legacy.
“He worked tirelessly on behalf of equal opportunities, in education, business, civic engagement, and within the justice system,” Robinson said. “A recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, he of course is an American hero.”
But Robinson’s page wasn’t the only one scrubbed in the department’s “DEI purge”.
Pages honoring the Tuskegee airmen, history-making female fighter pilots, the Navajo Code Talkers, and the Native servicemen who raised the US flag at Iwo Jima all disappeared overnight.
Even the webpage highlighting the integration of the Army was removed from the site.
Department of Defense webpages restored after backlash, as Trump’s attacks on diversity continue to grow
Following fierce backlash, the Department of Defense restored most of the deleted web pages. Officials claimed the pages were likely removed “by mistake” in a sweeping effort to remove “DEI related” content.
The ongoing attacks on diversity under the Trump administration has continued building in recent weeks and extends beyond webpages.
The administration has repeatedly attacked Black, brown, and female soldiers, pilots, educators, doctors, and more. False assertions that these leaders only reached success because of the color of their skin is leading to significant real-life damage.
Back at the Department of Defense, the only second Black chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was fired abruptly by the Trump administration. Charles Q. Brown, a well-respected four-star General was fired from his post, and replaced by a lower-ranking white man.
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