The Department of Defense Deleted Sports Hero Jackie Robinson From Its Website
Here we go again… Earlier this week, I wrote about Charles Calvin Rogers, a Black Medal of Honor recipient who was unceremoniously removed from the Department of Defense’s website. An article highlighting Rogers’ many achievements was apparently flagged by the department’s anti-DEI efforts and subsequently deleted, only to be reinstated after public outcry.
The Trump administration has become highly critical of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) efforts and programs. As a result, government agencies are scrambling to divest themselves of anything that could possibly be construed as DEI. They’ve made some pretty bone-headed decisions in the process, however, essentially scrubbing American history of contributions made by minorities. And now, the latest victim of the Trump administration’s anti-DEI idiocy is sports legend Jackie Robinson.
Robinson is one of the most significant players in the history of baseball. He won the first Rookie of the Year Award, was an All-Star player in multiple seasons and a 1955 World Series champion, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and most famously of all, broke the color barrier in 1947 when he became the first African-American to play modern Major League Baseball.
Robinson also served in the Army when he was drafted in 1942. After being assigned to the 761st “Black Panthers” tank battalion at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos), Robinson was court-martialed in 1944 when he refused to move to the back of an Army bus. He was ultimately acquitted of all charges and left the Army in 1944 with an honorable discharge and the rank of Second Lieutenant.
Once upon a time, you could read about all of this on the Department of Defense’s website at this URL:
But that URL now redirects you to this URL, which generates a “404 — Page Not Found” error:
As was the case with Charles Calvin Rogers’ once-deleted article, “dei” has been prepended to the final URL segment of Jackie Robinson’s article, changing sports-heroes to deisports-heroes. In other words, the legacy of yet another noteworthy and historically significant Black individual has been dismissed due to the Trump administration’s hatred of DEI.
Now, I’m sure that Robinson’s page will eventually be reinstated just like Rogers’ page was, with a spokesperson attributing its deletion to yet another “auto removal process.” (Until then, you can read the original article on the Internet Archive.) But that won’t change the stupidity and carelessness of these deletions, nor will it reduce the diminishing and whitewashing of American history that they represent.
Update (3/20): The Department of Defense has restored Jackie Robinson’s article at its original URL, albeit with some edits (just as they did with Charles Calvin Rogers’ article). Specifically, Robinson’s article is no longer tagged with “black history.” Which seems trivial but is also just petty, as if the Trump administration is willing to take even the tiniest steps to make it more difficult to learn about Black people’s contributions to America.