An article highlighting the U.S. Military profession of baseball legend Jackie Robinson has been restored to the Department of Defense website. Its elimination had gave the impression to be associated to the Trump administration’s stance towards diversity, equity and inclusion.
Robinson, the Corridor of Famer who broke baseball’s color barrier when he began at first base for the Dodgers in 1947, was drafted into the Military in 1942 and served till 1944, attaining the rank of second lieutenant.
The article is one in every of at the very least 50 items that seem on the division’s web site as a part of a sequence titled “Sports Heroes Who Served.” Written by David Vergun of DOD Information and initially revealed on Feb. 9, 2021, the article not too long ago disappeared from the web site. The web page displayed an error message, and the URL had been altered to incorporate “DEI.”
Robinson’s son, David, who serves as a board member of his father’s foundation, issued an announcement expressing shock.
“We take nice delight in Jackie Robinson’s service to our nation as a soldier and a sports activities hero, an icon whose braveness, expertise, energy of character and dedication contributed enormously to leveling the enjoying discipline not solely in skilled sports activities however all through society,” David Robinson stated. “He, in fact, is an American hero.”
The article was returned to the division’s web site underneath its authentic URL on Tuesday.
Along with highlighting a lot of Robinson’s athletic achievements, the article particulars the trailblazer’s army profession — together with an incident by which he refused an Army bus driver’s order to move to the back. Consequently Robinson was court-martialed but later acquitted, then served as a coach for Military athletics till receiving an honorable discharge.
President Trump has issued government orders in an effort to end the federal government’s support for DEI programs. U.S. District Choose Adam Abelson in Baltimore blocked the orders, however final week a three-judge panel on the U.S. 4th Circuit Court docket of Appeals dominated that the orders can be enforced.
A Feb. 27 Defense Department memo mandated that “by March 5, 2025, all Parts should take away and archive DoD information articles, images, and movies selling Range, Fairness, and Inclusion.” Since then 1000’s of pages have been eliminated. A division official advised ABC News that the Robinson article was one in every of a number of objects that had been “mistakenly eliminated.”
A picture of baseball nice Jackie Robinson hangs close to Petco Park in San Diego on Aug. 26, 2020.
(Gregory Bull / Related Press)
In response to questions from The Occasions, the Pentagon emailed an announcement from the Protection Division press secretary John Ullyot:
“Everybody on the Protection Division loves Jackie Robinson, in addition to the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others,” Ullyot said. “We salute them for his or her robust and in lots of circumstances heroic service to our nation, full cease. We don’t view or spotlight them via the prism of immutable traits, reminiscent of race, ethnicity, or intercourse. We accomplish that solely by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like [every] different American who has worn the uniform.
“DEI — Discriminatory Fairness Ideology does the other. It’s a type of Woke cultural Marxism that Divides the pressure, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the companies’ core warfighting mission.
“We’re happy by the fast compliance throughout the Division with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. Within the uncommon circumstances that content material is eliminated — both intentionally or by mistake — that’s out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the elements they usually appropriate the content material so it acknowledges our heroes for his or her devoted service alongside their fellow People, interval.”
On Tuesday morning — earlier than the Robinson article was restored — a seek for “Jackie Robinson” on the division’s web site introduced up an article on Robinson’s Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese, from the “Sports activities Heroes Who Served” sequence. That article mentions Reese’s gesture of putting his arm around his Black teammate in an effort to quiet a booing Cincinnati crowd in 1947.
Additionally whereas Robinson’s article was lacking, a number of others from the “Sports activities Heroes Who Served” sequence that spotlight Black athletes — together with the NBA’s David Robinson (not Jackie’s son), MLB’s Rod Carew and Olympic gold medalist hurdler Willie Davenport — remained on the positioning.
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