Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.

Search Results

Correspondence from Nancy Kurshan to CEML Correspondence from Nancy Kurshan to CEML
Author: Nancy KurshanPublisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1988Format: CorrespondenceCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Regarding the Detroit/Ann Arbor/Lansing trip.
Marion Report Marion Report
Author: Nancy KurshanPublisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1988Format: ReportCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Report to Prairie Fire Organization Committee regarding Marion Work.
Protestors Confront Head of Bureau of Prisons Protestors Confront Head of Bureau of Prisons
Author: Nancy KurshanPublisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1988Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Personal account of the Quinlin protest at the 40th annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology.
The politics of this book The politics of this book
Authors: Nancy Kurshan, Steve WhitmanPublisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1990Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
An introduction to a book about imprisonment that never was published. Virtual holdings only.
Twelve Month Plan for Work Around Marion Twelve Month Plan for Work Around Marion
Authors: Nancy Kurshan, Steve WhitmanPublisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1990Format: AgendaCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
1/10/1990 Strategic plan by quarter
Letter to Janet Reno Letter to Janet Reno
Author: Nancy KurshanPublisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1993Format: CorrespondenceCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
3/27/1993 Expresses concerns over plans to open a supermax prison in Florence, CO.
Maybe We should Bar failed Prison Policies Maybe We should Bar failed Prison Policies
Author: Nancy KurshanPublisher: Chicago Sun-TimesYear: 1993Format: ArticleCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Reproduction of article from 4/8/1993 issue. Response to Editorial "Open and Shut Case: Prison Space Needed" on 3/29/1993.
Community Whipping Pose: Abolish Racist Prisons Community Whipping Pose: Abolish Racist Prisons
Authors: Rosa Kurshan-Emmer, Nancy KurshanPublisher: Antioch RecordYear: 1996Format: ArticleCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Reproduction of article on the principles of Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Reprot on the Emergency Response Activated Around Marion by the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons Reprot on the Emergency Response Activated Around Marion by the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons
Author: Nancy KurshanPublisher: National Campaign to Stop Control Unit PrisonsYear: 1997Format: ReportCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Yasu Yasu
Author: Nancy KurshanYear: 2011Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
excerpt from CEML narrative.