March 17, 2025 Story by: Editor
Reports emerged claiming that Arlington National Cemetery had removed links to web pages dedicated to Black, Hispanic, and female veterans buried at the site.
The reports originated from Task & Purpose, a military-focused news and analysis outlet, which found that between December 2024 and March 2025, several links to pages highlighting Black, Hispanic, and female veterans had been removed from the cemetery’s website.
Using the Wayback Machine, a digital archive of web pages, the removal of links reported by Task & Purpose was verified. These missing links included three pages from the “Notable Graves” section, six educational “themes,” two pages from the “History of Arlington National Cemetery” subsection, and one from the website’s “Explore” tab. Given this evidence, the claim was rated as true.
Cemetery Officials Cite Compliance with Executive Order
According to Task & Purpose, officials at Arlington National Cemetery confirmed that the webpages were “unpublished” in adherence to an executive order on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issued during the Trump administration. Additionally, a directive from U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth instructed the military to review language and policies related to race and gender.
Upon reaching out to Arlington National Cemetery for further clarification, a spokesperson responded:
“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. 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.”
In a follow-up email dated March 14, 2025, the same spokesperson added:
“We are hoping to begin republishing updated education modules next week.”
Pages Honoring Black, Hispanic, and Female Veterans Were Among Those Removed
Task & Purpose listed several specific pages that had been removed. A review using the Wayback Machine confirmed the following deletions between December 2024 and March 12, 2025:
- From the Notable Graves subsection:
- African American History
- Hispanic American History
- Women’s History
- From the Themes section under Education:
- African American History
- Civil War
- Environment at ANC
- Medal of Honor
- Service Branches
- Women’s History
- From the History of Arlington National Cemetery subsection:
- Freedman’s Village
- Section 27
Despite being unlinked from the cemetery’s main website, the pages themselves remained accessible via direct URLs.
For instance, the Freedman’s Village page, which details a temporary settlement built for formerly enslaved people on Arlington National Cemetery grounds in 1863, was still live but no longer linked from the “History of Arlington National Cemetery” section.
Similarly, Section 27—where the cemetery’s first military burial took place during the Civil War and where over 3,800 formerly enslaved African Americans were laid to rest—was also still accessible via its direct URL but not from the cemetery’s main website as of March 14.
Additionally, a review of the Arlington National Cemetery website revealed that a list of webinars from the “Explore” section had been removed between February 22, 2025, and March 11, 2025. This page contained recordings of discussions on topics such as “Freedman’s Village” and “75 Years Recruiting Women,” which may have led to its removal.
Links Removed as Part of DoD ‘Digital Content Refresh’
Since Arlington National Cemetery is operated by the U.S. Army under the Department of Defense (DoD), any policies implemented by the DoD also apply to the cemetery’s website and staff.
A spokesperson for Arlington National Cemetery previously stated that content was removed to “ensure alignment with Department of Defense instruction 5400.17.” However, this led to some confusion, as DoD Instruction 5400.17 pertains only to social media usage within the DoD and was updated on February 14, 2025, to align with Executive Order 14168—titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
The instruction only briefly mentions terms such as “gender,” “sex,” and “race,” stating that DoD social media accounts must not contain:
“Hate speech or material that ridicules others on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, or sexual orientation.”
It remained unclear how exactly this policy or Executive Order 14168 directly related to the removal of links referencing Black and Hispanic veterans.
A more likely explanation came from a February 27, 2025, memo issued by U.S. Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Sean Parnell, which instructed all DoD public platforms to conduct a “digital content refresh.” The memo stated:
“By March 5, 2025, Components must take all practicable steps, consistent with records management requirements, to remove all DoD news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). All articles, photos, and videos removed from DoD websites and social media platforms must be archived and retained in accordance with applicable records management policies.”
The memo specifically called for the removal of content that emphasized “immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex.”
Pattern of DEI-Related Content Removals
This move is part of a broader trend of government agencies reducing references to DEI initiatives. Snopes has previously reported on NASA removing mentions of minority groups and inclusion from its website, as well as the U.S. military’s deletion of historical photos related to World War II’s Enola Gay aircraft.
The removal of these Arlington National Cemetery webpages aligns with these ongoing efforts, though officials claim that some of the educational content will be reinstated in an updated format.
Source: Snopes
