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

Discussion with Dhoruba bin Wahad and Taniquil Discussion with Dhoruba bin Wahad and Taniquil
Date: 5/20/1990Call Number: PM 194Format: Cass A & BCollection: Dhoruba Bin Wahad
Discussion with Dhoruba bin Wahad and Taniquil at someone’s home addressing a group of progressive whites about multiracial formations and the state of race in the US. Two full sides, tape gets cut off at end of Side B.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Summit National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Summit
Date: 6/17/1994Call Number: KP 184AFormat: Cass ACollection: General materials
A summit discussing the present and future of the NAACP. Long time members Jack Greenberg (former council director of NAACP legal-education fund) and Michael Meyers (former director of NY civil rights coalition, Assistant director of NAACP) disagree with the new ways in which the organization is being run, while Sharpton and Jackson support the new directions. This heated debate is about the fact that an earlier Baltimore summit had an all-Black council along with Louis Farrakhan, whose political stances are contentious. Meyers and Greenberg argue that the NAACP is on a road to destruction due to Black extremism, separatism, bigotry, and the forgotten sense that all minorities and whites are supposed to come together. Sharpton and Jackson argue that they have the right to have an all-Black summit with all ranges of public opinion just like other minority groups (i.e., Jews, Latinos, Asians, etc.).
Al Sharpton - The battle of New York City Al Sharpton - The battle of New York City
Date: 6/8/1990Call Number: CV 261AFormat: Cass AProducers: Castillo International TapesCollection: Chuy Varela Collection
Al Sharpton criticizes newly elected mayor Dave Dickens for overlooking his base in the African American community. Bob Abrahms, the governor of New York, is also criticized as is the mishandled investigation into the hate-crime murder of Yusuf Hawkins.
Lenora Fulani in Babylon - The battle of New York City Lenora Fulani in Babylon - The battle of New York City
Date: 6/8/1990Call Number: CV 261BFormat: Cass BProducers: Castillo International TapesCollection: Chuy Varela Collection
Dr. Lenora Fulani discusses the media's bias against Al Sharpton, police brutality in New York City and the isolation of African American and Latino youth.