(archived) circulated online that the Arlington National Cemetery website had removed links to webpages about Black, Hispanic and female veterans buried at the site.The claim originated from a report by Task & Purpose, a military news, culture and analysis outlet. The report found that between December 2024 and March 2025, several links to pages relating to Black, Hispanic and female veterans disappeared from Arlington National Cemetery’s website.

Using archive.org‘s Wayback Machine, a website that archives pages from across the web, we verified the removal of links that Task & Purpose reported. The removed links included three pages from the “Notable Graves” section, six education “themes,” two pages from the “History of Arlington National Cemetery” subsection and one page from the website’s “Explore” tab. Therefore, we rate this claim true.

According to Task & Purpose, cemetery officials confirmed that they “unpublished” the pages in question in compliance with a Trump administration executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion and a resulting directive from U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “targeting race and gender-related language and policies in the military.”

We reached out to Arlington National Cemetery to confirm the above. We also asked the cemetery to confirm exactly which links officials removed and when. A cemetery spokesperson gave the following reply:

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 further March 14, 2025, email, the same spokesperson said, “We are hoping to begin republishing updated education modules next week.”

Missing links led to pages paying tribute to Black, Hispanic and female veterans

The Task & Purpose report included a full list of links the outlet said disappeared from Arlington National Cemetery’s site.

Using Wayback Machine, we replicated Task & Purpose’s findings. The missing links, removed between December 2024 and March 12, 2025, were as follows:

• African American History, removed from the Notable Graves subsection.
• Hispanic American History, removed from the Notable Graves subsection.
• Women’s History, removed from the Notable Graves subsection.
• African American History, removed from the Themes drop-down of the Education section.
• Civil War, removed from the Themes drop-down of the Education section.
• Environment at ANC, removed from the Themes drop-down of the Education section.
• Medal of Honor, removed from the Themes drop-down of the Education section.
• Service Branches, removed from the Themes drop-down of the Education section.
• Women’s History, removed from the Themes drop-down of the Education section.
• Freedman’s Village, removed from the History of Arlington National Cemetery subsection.
• Section 27, removed from the History of Arlington National Cemetery subsection.

At the time of this writing the pages listed above still existed and could be accessed through their direct URLs, but not through links on the Arlington National Cemetery website.

For example, the Freedman’s Village page was still available through its direct URL, though the History of Arlington National Cemetery section of the website no longer linked directly to it. The page detailed the temporary settlement housing formerly enslaved people that the federal government constructed on Arlington National Cemetery grounds in 1863.

Section 27 of Arlington National Cemetery saw the cemetery’s first military burial during the Civil War. More than 3,800 African American formerly enslaved people were also buried in Section 27, according to the page, which was still live but also not directly linked on the site on March 14.

Six “Themes” disappeared from the cemetery’s Education portal between February and March 2025. (education.arlingtoncemetery.mil / web.archive.org)

From a page-by-page click-through of the Arlington National Cemetery website we also found a missing list of webinars under the website’s “Explore” section. The Webinars subpage disappeared from the site between Feb. 22, 2025, and March 11, 2025. The page contained recordings of talks on topics including “Freedman’s Village” and “75 years recruiting women” that might have qualified it for removal.

Links removed following DOD ‘digital content refresh’

The U.S. Army, reporting to the Department of Defense, operates Arlington National Cemetery under the Office of Army Cemeteries. Therefore, policies enacted in the DOD also apply to the cemetery, its staff and its website.