Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the DOGE Youth went too far in purging any trace of what they consider DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) from the Department of Defense and Pentagon websites. Robinson wasn’t singled out, but part of a wide-ranging eradication including General Colin Powell, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Japanese American 422nd Combat Regiment, Army Maj. General Charles C. Rogers and the Navajo Code Talkers. The plan was to remove any hint of contribution by minorities and the LGBTQ. A photograph of the first plane to drop an atomic bomb in warfare was removed, the Enola Gay, presumably because it showed the word gay. An Air Force Commander named the aircraft after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets.
Jackie Robinson is best known for having broken the color barrier of Major League Baseball, joining the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Part of what Dodger general manager Branch Rickey was looking for was someone with the right temperament to endure the abuse and indignities he would face in their opponents' cities like Philadelphia and Boston. Robinson would constantly hear taunts and racial aspersions and be expected not to react, which might end the grand experiment. Robinson wasn’t one to be put in the corner, either. While in the army, he was court-martialed for refusing to sit in the back of an army bus, ultimately receiving an honorable discharge. Maybe that’s part of the history Trump’s minions don’t want you to know.
Robinson’s baseball career began with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues after starring in four sports at UCLA. Jackie wasn’t the most talented Black player in the leagues that starred Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige, but he was arguably the toughest. During his 10-year MLB career, Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, was an All-Star for six consecutive seasons from 1949 through 1954, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949 — the first Black player so honored. Robinson played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers’ 1955 World Series championship. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 in his first year of eligibility.
By the end of his career, Robinson was an American hero, not simply a Black one, and proved he earned his position by merit, opening the floodgates for talented Black players. Larry Doby performed a similar function in the American League three months after Robinson broke into the National League.
There was an uproar when Jackie Robinson was removed from military websites. At first, an army spokesperson tried to defend his removal because. . . DEI.
“As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department," said Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot. "Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military,” Ullyot said. “It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission. We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms.”
ESPN baseball columnist Jeff Passan was among the first to point out that Robinson’s page was taken down. “This used to be the URL for a story on the @DeptofDefense website about Jackie Robinson’s time in the Army,” Passan wrote in a post on X. “The story has been removed. The ghouls who did this should be ashamed. Jackie Robinson was the embodiment of an American hero. Fix this now.”
Recently, it emerged that Arlington National Cemetery purged dozens of pages of information about famous Black, Hispanic, and female veterans from its website. Apparently, complying with anti-DEI directives means the only people worthy of recognition by the military are straight, white men.
It should be noted that Jackie Robinson was a Republican, attending the 1964 Republican Convention as a special delegate supporting Nelson Rockefeller. But he wasn’t a Republican in good standing, having written about the racism he endured at the convention in his autobiography.
I’d credit someone for knowing Robinson’s history and his work for the civil rights movement as partial reasoning for his removal, but it’s more likely they had no idea. The DOGE Youth have no knowledge or understanding of history, Musk grew up in South Africa, and Trump doesn’t read.
After the uproar, Robinson’s information was restored to military websites, as were some of the others. Notably, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, another Republican, has yet to be restored. Could it be because he’s been critical of Donald Trump and having nothing to do with DEI?
Jackie Robinson couldn’t be put in the corner by the US Army, Major League Baseball, or the Republican Party. What made Donald Trump think he could do it?
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.