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

Paul Robeson: Peekskill Riots Paul Robeson: Peekskill Riots
Date: 1/1/1972Call Number: PR 053Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: David GelberCollection: Paul Robeson recordings
David Gelber (WBAI) narrates the story of the August 27, 1949 and September 4, 1949 riots at the Paul Robeson concerts in Peekskill, NY. Interviews with and eyewitness accounts by various individuals, including Howard Fast, Pete Seeger, Ellen Perlo, Victor Perlo, Freddy Hillerman (of Peoples Artists, the organization that sponsored the concerts), interspersed with excerpts from live radio broadcasts at the scene. Same as CD 286, Track 3
Peekskill Riots: Oral History Documentary Peekskill Riots: Oral History Documentary
Date: 1/1/1972Call Number: PR 084Format: 1/4 3 3/4 ipsProducers: WBAICollection: Paul Robeson recordings
Includes audio clips of eye-witness accounts of the August 27, 1949 and September 4, 1949 events including on-the-scene radio reports, produced and hosted by David Gelber. Same as CD 367, Track 1
Peekskill Riots: Oral History Documentary Peekskill Riots: Oral History Documentary
Date: 1/1/1972Call Number: CD 367Format: CDProducers: WBAICollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Includes audio clips of eye-witness accounts of the August 27, 1949 and September 4, 1949 Peekskill Riots including on-the-scene reports, produced and hosted by David Gelber. Part 1. Same as PR 084