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

Poems Against War, Part 1 Poems Against War, Part 1
Date: 1/25/1991Call Number: CV 265Format: Cass A & BCollection: Chuy Varela Collection
Poetry critical both of war in general and the Gulf War (1st Iraq War) specifically. Criticism of high Latino involvement in the war (35-40% of troops were Latino/Chicano). Discussion of past wars and what they meant for Mexican Americans. Recitation of poetry on the “immigration wars”, the raids and attacks on immigrant communities.
Immigration and the Treatment of Illegal/Perceived to be illegal immigrants AND Update on Fast For Life by Pastors for Peace Immigration and the Treatment of Illegal/Perceived to be illegal immigrants AND Update on Fast For Life by Pastors for Peace
Date: 4/5/1996Call Number: JG/ 159BFormat: Cass BProducers: Judy GerberProgram: A Defiant HeartCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
Judy Gerber opens the episode talking about issues around immigration and the harmful treatment of people perceived to be illegal immigrants in the United States. These people face mistreatment and are labeled as illegal and criminals. Judy speaks on the need to find new ways to formally and systematically recognize undocumented people. After a brief break, Judy returns to give an update on the Fast For Life being held by the Pastors For Peace. After being denied by the United States government the ability to transport 400 computers to Cuba for medical use, the Pastors For Peace decided to go on a hunger strike and have since been joined by people nationwide in protest of the US government’s ruling.