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

Interview with Jan Susler Interview with Jan Susler
Date: 1/7/2003Call Number: V 141Format: SVHSProducers: nyla rosen, hana tauber, jose ignacio fuste, marcos garofaloCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Unedited interview used to get clips for a project on the Puerto Rican former political prisoners. In English. Jan Susler, one of the lawers for the Puerto Rican Political prisoners talks about the connections between Puerto Rican Independence and the release of the political prisoners, the struggle for independence, her political history, the campaign to shut down the Lexington Control Unit and fear (min 25), how Luis Rosa and the other prisoners changed her (min 47), visibility (min 1), North Americans supporting Puerto Rico’s liberation struggle, etc. Continued on V 142. NOTE: For easier viewing, check out V 143 which has extracted, edited, and subtitled interviews of her and some of the former prisoners.
Interview with Jan Susler Interview with Jan Susler
Date: 1/7/2003Call Number: V 142Format: SVHSProducers: nyla rosen, hana tauber, jose ignacio fuste, marcos garofaloCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
(Continued from V 141.) Unedited interview used to get clips for a project on the Puerto Rican former political prisoners. In English. Jan Susler, one of the lawers for the Puerto Rican Political prisoners talks about the connections between Puerto Rican Independence and the release of the political prisoners, connections between post Sept. 11 repression and that faced by Puerto Ricans, crisis, visibility, etc. NOTE: For easier viewing, check out V 143 which has extracted, edited, and subtitled interviews of her and some of the former prisoners.
A Defiant Heart New Year 1995: Political Prisoner Program A Defiant Heart New Year 1995: Political Prisoner Program
Date: 12/30/1994Call Number: JG/ 089BFormat: Cass BProducers: Judy GerberProgram: A Defiant HeartCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
New Year 1995 show with a focus on political prisoners. Accounts of Puerto Rican political prisoners of the earlier 20th century. Reading of an article by Jan Sassler of the People’s Law Office of Chicago in ‘Bulldozer’ magazine that stresses biases in the American parole system. Discusses the San Francisco prison group Out of Control’s work as well as ‘The Key,’ a lesbian and gay prisoner newsletter.
NPR Report on Lexington Control Unit NPR Report on Lexington Control Unit
Date: 10/1/1986Call Number: PM 430Format: CassetteProducers: National Public RadioCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Jacki Lyden reports on the lawsuit challenging the placement of Susan Rosenberg, Alejandrina Torres and Silvia Beraldini in the Lexington control unit, which resulted in Lexington's closure.
NPR Report on Lexington Control Unit NPR Report on Lexington Control Unit
Date: 10/1/1986Call Number: CD 819Format: CassetteProducers: National Public RadioCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Jacki Lyden reports on the lawsuit challenging the placement of Susan Rosenberg, Alejandrina Torres and Sylvia Beraldini in the Lexington control unit, which resulted in Lexington's closure.