Jackie Robinson: Baseball Star Erased by Defense Department

Screenshot of the Department of Defense page for Sports Heroes Who Served: Baseball Great Jackie Robinson Was WWII Soldier 404 - Page Not Found.

A U.S. Department of Defense article about Jackie Robinson serving in the military during World War II has been erased due to anti-DEI policies.

If you do not think that being against diversity, equity, and inclusivity is racist, I have a bridge to sell you. Being anti-DEI just means that you are racist. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this. We’re seeing it all across the federal government right now. Yes, there’s resistance forming but the mere fact that it is policy is bad enough. Rather than use the acronym, we really should spell it out in full. Being against DEI means that someone is against diversity, equity, and inclusivity. Sadly, this includes a number of military heroes. It includes the Tuskegee Airman. It includes one of the Iwo Jima flag raisers.

There is no place for racism in 2025. Moreover, there is no place for racism coming from the top in 2025. I should not have to be writing this article. However, we are dealing with a Baseball Hall of Famer’s military record. As such, it falls under both the baseball and military beats.

The above featured image is the page as it currently appears with an added prefix of DEI in the URL. What follows below is the screenshot from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine of how it appeared on September 15, 2024:

I decided to do some further digging, going 11 pages deep into sports stars serving in the military. My focus was just on Black baseball players. All of the pages for the following players are still online. So why is Robinson’s erased from military history?!?

• Charley Pride, Negro Leagues ballplayer (Archive, current page is online)
• Al Bumbry, former centerfielder and World Series champion (Archive, current page is online)
• Dan Bankhead, first Black pitcher in Major League Baseball (Archive, current page is online)
• Bill Greason, former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher and Congressional Gold Medal recipient (Archive, current page is online). Greason discusses his experience in 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid by Willie Mays and John Shea.
• Roberto Clemente, Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder, 2x World Series Champion, 3,000 Hit Club (Archive, current page is online)
• Dusty Baker, manager (Archive, current page is online)
• Larry Doby, Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder and first Black ballplayer in the American League (Archive, current page is online)

Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth do not want you to know anything about Jackie Robinson’s military service. The Baseball Hall of Famer was drafted in 1942 and subsequently assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. Trump and Hegseth do not want you to know that he received a commission as a second lieutenant. Robinson would then join the 761st “Black Panthers” tank battalion at his next assignment in Fort Hood, Texas.

Robinson–much like right now, unfortunately–was not immune to racism during his time in the military. Despite a bus driver ordering him to do so, he refused to move to the back of an Army bus on July 6, 1944. The military police were called. After arriving, they would take him into custody. He was acquitted following a court martial. At this point, the army transferred him to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky. It’s here where Robinson serve as coach for Army athletics until his honorable discharge in November 1944.

But again, the U.S. Department of Defense leadership does not want you to know this. This is racism. I have a responsibility to call it out. Everyone calling themselves a baseball writer should call it out.

If this were not about Jackie Robinson, I would be writing this on Solzy on Buttondown. But because it’s about him, covering it on a baseball site is a no-brainer. Robinson broke barriers in a big way. He became the first Black baseball player in modern baseball history when he made his Brooklyn Dodgers debut on April 15, 1947. While other teams–such as the now-Cleveland Guardians–were quick to integrate, others took their team. Both the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox were the final teams to integrate twelve years later in 1959.

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