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

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.
Norma Jean Croy Norma Jean Croy
Date: 8/28/1995Call Number: PM 327AFormat: Cass AProducers: Prison Activist Resource CenterProgram: On The Outside Collection: Norma Jean Croy
Norma Jean Croy & the 1978 Hooty Case are discussed in great detail in an interview with Rita Brown and Jane Segal. The claim for self-defense helped Hooty get acquitted from his sentence, but not Norma Jean Croy. She remains at Chowchilla for life. Bo and Jane encourage people to advocate for her release. They also question the government's use of prisons in the U.S.
There Are Women Political Prisoners in the US There Are Women Political Prisoners in the US
Publisher: Out of Control: Committee to Shut Down Lexington Control UnitYear: 1988Format: FlyerCollection: Lexington Control Unit for Women
Information on Lexington Control Unit and the women imprisoned there.