Arlington National Cemetery has removed dozens of pages of information about notable Black, Hispanic, and female veterans from its website in accordance with President Donald Trump’s diversity, equity, and inclusion executive order.
The purge follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s declaration that “DEI is dead” as he carries out Trump’s agenda in the Pentagon.
One of Trump’s many executive orders prohibited DEI in federal programs, and Pentagon officials have issued directives to remove any content that “promotes” it.
This includes removing internal links to educational resources from the cemetery’s website.
African American History, Hispanic American History, and Women’s History are no longer available in the website’s “Notable Graves” dropdown menu, according to screenshots taken by Armed Forces outlet Task & Purpose in December 2024 and now.
Officials informed the outlet that some pages had been “unpublished.” An Army spokesperson told The Independent that it was “working diligently to return removed content” but did not specify when it would be returned.
Arlington Cemetery removes information about renowned Black, Hispanic, and female veterans in accordance with Trump instructions
“We are proud of our educational content and programming and working diligently to return removed content to ensure alignment with Department of Defense instruction 5400.17 and Executive Orders issued by the President ,” a spokesperson told CNN.
“We remain committed to sharing the stories of military service and sacrifice to the nation with transparency and professionalism, while continuing to engage with our community in a manner that reflects our core values.”
Some pages honoring diverse veterans can still be found through search, but they are no longer accessible directly through the site itself, Task & Purpose reports.
They include the biographies of Gen. Colin L. Powell, the youngest and first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black man to serve on the Supreme Court.
According to the outlet, there is no longer a direct link to information about Lt. Kara Spears Hultgreen, the Air Force’s first African American female brigadier general.
Kevin Levin, a Civil War historian, first reported the missing links and educational materials on Substack.
According to Levin, Arlington staff-created lesson plans for students on Women’s History and Medal of Honor recipients have also been removed from a dropdown menu.
He stated that the Arlington staff did “an excellent job” in creating lesson plans for teachers.
“I have seen first hand the good work that they do with teachers and I know for a fact that teachers across the country have used these lesson plans,” according to him. “So much good work has been lost, more than likely deleted by someone with no understanding or interest in American history.”
Democrats and veterans’ organizations criticized the move. “This is a terrible affront to the veterans who have been dishonored and canceled posthumously, as well as their families,” said Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin. “It is a pathological statement that the MAGA government cannot even accept inclusion in death.”
The progressive veterans group VoteVets accused the Trump administration of “whitewashing history.”
“Arlington National Cemetery just erased DEI from its website — because Republicans threw a tantrum over honoring ALL who served,” the organization informed me. “The same Republicans who cut veteran healthcare now decide who deserves to be remembered. This is not patriotism. It’s a whitewash of history.”
