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

Prison to COINTELPRO Prison to COINTELPRO
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Geronimo Pratt
Geronimo Ji Jaga speaks on the political aspects of his imprisonment and provides historical context to his situation.
Vietnam & Detroit Rebellion Vietnam & Detroit Rebellion
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesProgram: COINTELPRO 101Collection: Geronimo Pratt
Geronimo Ji Jaga discusses his experience of returning from a year of combat in Vietnam only to be ordered to repress an riot in Detroit that largely consisted of Black and disenfranchised peoples.
I'm in it to win! I'm in it to win!
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Geronimo Pratt
Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt asserts his mission as a revolutionary activist.
Why i was a target Why i was a target
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesProgram: COINTELPRO 101Collection: Geronimo Pratt
Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt discusses why he was targeted by the COINELPRO program.
Keep on Pushin' Keep on Pushin'
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesProgram: COINTELPRO 101Collection: Geronimo Pratt
Words of encouragement from Geronimo Ji Jaga.
James Baldwin and American Identity James Baldwin and American Identity
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Black Liberation
In this speech given in 1963 James Baldwin addresses the genocide and slave labor that is largely denied by the history of the 'formation' of the United States.
Indigenous Resistance 1 Indigenous Resistance 1
Collection: Indigenous Struggles
Buffy Saint Marie - My Country Tis of Thy People You’re Dying – about boarding schools and falsified history. Joanne Tall – about the ongoing genocidal impact of boarding schools, how religion forces assimilation, the 1973 Liberation of Wounded Knee and how it impacted her and her people.
Indigenous Resistance - Part 2 from Roots of Resistance Indigenous Resistance - Part 2 from Roots of Resistance
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesProgram: Roots of ResistanceCollection: Indigenous Struggles
Chant in resistance to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (the BIA), by Native-American activists “Radio Free Alcatraz” broadcast by the Indians of All Tribes on Alcatraz in 1969 – John Trudell, Richard Oakes and Don Cooney. Wounded Knee mix with sounds of the American Indian Movement (AIM) – occupation, shots, FBI radio messages, and the voices of Dennis Banks and Carter Camp. Wounded Knee was also the site of an 1890 genocidal massacre of the Sioux Nation by the US cavalry.
Black Liberation Part 1 Black Liberation Part 1
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Black Liberation
Sweet Honey In The Rock - "Give Your Hands to Struggle" James Baldwin - about his visit to a slave station near Dakar in Senegal. He expresses his pain as he tries to imagine how the slaves might have felt as they awaited the middle passage. How they were met with the gun and the bible when they arrived and how white America denies and even justifies this history Sweet Honey In The Rock continued Freedom medley - a mix of songs from the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960’s
Black Liberation Part 2 Black Liberation Part 2
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Black Power/Black Nation
Malcolm X on Black Nationalism as a response to US Colonialism; Assata Shakur reads her poem Carry It On tracing the history of Black resistance to white supremacy