Arlington National Cemetery has removed links to pages featuring notable Black, Hispanic, and female veterans from its website. This decision is part of a larger effort by the Department of Defense (DOD) to scrub its digital platforms of DEI-related materials, following directives from Pentagon leaders and executive orders by President Donald Trump.

The DoD’s initiative to remove DEI content began with a memo issued by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, requiring all Defense Department components to take down news articles, photos, and videos promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion by March 5.

This directive is part of a “digital content refresh” aimed at aligning with President Trump’s executive orders, which have targeted DEI programs across the federal government.

The cemetery’s website previously included detailed biographies and histories of distinguished veterans such as General Colin L. Powell, the Tuskegee Airmen, and members of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all-Black, all-female unit that served in World War II. 

Dozens of academic lesson plans and educational modules have been taken down. These included self-guided walking tours to Medal of Honor recipients’ graves and materials on military history topics such as Women’s History and African-American History. Pages on Freedman’s Village and Section 27, significant in the cemetery’s post-Civil War history, have been delinked from the main website.

Historian Kevin Levin broke the story on Substack. He said, “Like it or not, the complete history of Arlington National Cemetery and that of the military is a story of “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusiveness.” It is embedded in the very landscape of Arlington.”

We have a responsibility to the men and women buried at Arlington and elsewhere, who paid the ultimate sacrifice, to honor them by facing and acknowledging the history that they helped to shape in all of its complexity and regardless of how it makes us feel.”