U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on March 27 signs a memorandum to reduce the Department of Defense’s civilian workforce and earlier ordered U.S. military academies to remove DEI-related materials. Photo courtesy of the Department of Defense.
April 5 (UPI) — The U.S. Naval Academy removed 381 books from its library shelves in response to President Donald Trump‘s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion materials and policies in federal facilities.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered the Naval Academy to review its titles listings and remove books that promote DEI, U.S. officials told the Navy Times.
Academy officials identified nearly 900 books for review and afterward compiled a llst of 381 books that it removed
Among the titles removed are, “How to be an antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi, “Uncomfortable conversations with a black man” by Emmanuel Acho and “Why didn’t we riot?: a Black man in Trumpland” by Issac J. Bailey.
The Naval Academy removed the 381 books on Monday in advance of a visit that Hegseth made on Tuesday.
Hegseth’s order required the Defense Department to remove all “new articles, photos and videos promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, including content related to critical race theory, gender ideology and identity-based programs,” Military.com reported.
Trump’s executive order against DEI in the federal government did not apply to the U.S. military academies, but Hegseth ordered them to comply with the order following new reports saying DEI books remained on military academies’ library shelves.
In addition to removing books from the Naval Academy library, school officials also removed historic items honoring Jewish female academy graduates from the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish Chapel.
Their removal was a mistake, and “Naval Academy leadership is immediately taking steps to review and correct the unauthorized removal,” Comdr. Ashley Hockycko said.
Other books and materials were removed by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
Among those removed were books and materials discussing women who served during the Civil War, website discussions of Kristin Griest, who was the first woman to complete the Army’s Ranger School, and lessons discussing the Tuskegee Airmen‘s and Women’s Airforce Service Pilots’ services duringWorld War II.
Some of the removed items and online content have been returned.