2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

U.S. Army removed its webpage honoring civil rights pioneer Sarah Keys Evans under the Pentagon's DEI content purge

In July 2025, the U.S. Army removed from its official website a 2014 article honoring Sarah Keys Evans, a Black Women's Army Corps veteran whose 1952 arrest for refusing to give up a bus seat helped desegregate interstate travel. The removal was carried out under a February 2025 Defense Department directive, issued at the direction of Secretary Pete Hegseth, ordering military websites scrubbed of content framed as promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. An Army spokesperson said the material was "temporarily unpublished" pending review; it remained unavailable as of July 2026.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

In July 2025, the U.S. Army removed from its official website a February 2014 article, written by T. Anthony Bell, that commemorated Sarah Keys Evans, a Black private first class in the Women's Army Corps whose 1952 arrest for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white Marine led to a federal ruling that helped desegregate interstate bus travel, years before Rosa Parks. The takedown was part of a February 2025 Defense Department directive, issued at the behest of President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, ordering the military services to scrub websites, photos, and videos of content framed as promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Army spokesperson Christopher Surridge said that "in accordance with recent policy changes and renewed digital content guidance, the Army temporarily unpublished content featured on cultural observance months webpages," adding that historical articles would "soon be republished to better align with current guidance." Internet Archive Wayback Machine captures place the removal in July 2025, and the Keys Evans article remained unavailable as of July 2026. Her story was one of thousands about women and people of color removed from military websites under the directive.

Why we recorded this

Government agencies hold public records and official history in trust for the public, and removing that material for ideological reasons distorts the record citizens rely on. Here the Army deleted an official article documenting a Black veteran's role in desegregating interstate travel as part of a directive to strip military websites of content framed as promoting diversity. This archive records when agencies suppress or alter public information on political grounds, because a government that erases parts of its own history weakens the public's ability to hold it accountable.

Sources

  1. The Army Took Down Its Page Commemorating a Civil Rights Icon — Mother Jones primary accessed July 4, 2026
  2. Historical figures cut from military websites while others are restored following 'DEI' ban — NBC News investigative accessed July 4, 2026

See also