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The White House-led efforts against anything even thought to be related to diversity, equity, and inclusion have now ensnared the legacy of a baseball legend.
The U.S. Department of Defense took down, and then restored, a webpage devoted to the military career of Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who famously broke the sport’s color line in 1947. Robinson served in the U.S. Army during World War II, primarily working, and was honorably discharged in 1944—three years before he started play with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
His webpage, part of a broader series of “Sports Heroes Who Served,” listed as a “Page Not Found” error with “DEI” included in the web address. Hours later, and after widespread media coverage on the issue, the page was reinstated, and the “DEI” language in the address was removed.
Under the direction of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Department of Defense has been removing pages related to the contributions of minorities and women who served, all in an effort to strip out anything deemed to be DEI-related.
“Anybody that says that in the Department of Defense that diversity is our strength is, frankly, incorrect,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said this week. “Our shared purpose and unity are our strength.”
In two subsequent statements provided to Front Office Sports, the Department of Defense first decried “discriminatory equity ideology [as] a form of woke cultural Marxism,” but later 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.”
Among the pages left up throughout, notably, is one devoted to Robinson’s Dodgers teammate and friend, Pee Wee Reese, a white player who strongly came to Robinson’s defense in the wake of horrific racism. Reese’s page details his support of Robinson.
Just weeks ago, Trump announced a plan to include a statue of Robinson in a proposed sculpture park.
League Response
Major League Baseball, meanwhile, has annually celebrated Robinson’s legacy on April 15, the anniversary of his first MLB game in 1947. That commemoration includes every player wearing Robinson’s uniform No. 42.
The league Wednesday was finishing up its high-profile start to the season in Japan, but said in a statement regarding the initial government content takedown: “We are aware and [are] looking into it.”
The Department of Defense back-and-forth arrives less than a month before the 2025 iteration of Jackie Robinson Day, and the league will almost certainly be under heightened pressure to defend the legacy of one of its most influential figures.
“The life of Jackie Robinson represents America at its best,” Leonard Coleman, the former National League president and chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, told ESPN on Wednesday. “Removing an icon and Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient from government websites represents America at its worst.”
