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.

Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials

Documents

Eyes on the Prize: The Time Has Come (1964-1966) & Two Societies (1965-1968) Eyes on the Prize: The Time Has Come (1964-1966) & Two Societies (1965-1968)
Call Number: V 107Format: VHSProducers: PBSProgram: Eyes on the PrizeCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
The Time Has Come (1964-1966) - In the South and the urban North, leaders emerged who helped transform the Civil Rightsmovement into a broader struggle for human rights. Two Societies (1965-1968) - Two Societies reveals the divisions that existed between African Americans and whites in America’s cities, where African Americans had gained little from the southern freedom movement by the late ‘60s.
Eyes on the Prize: Power (1966-1968) & The Promised Land (1967-1968) Eyes on the Prize: Power (1966-1968) & The Promised Land (1967-1968)
Call Number: V 108Format: VHSProducers: PBSProgram: Eyes on the PrizeCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Power (1966-1968) - Solutions to the problems of inequality were as diverse as America itself. The Black Panther Party for Self Defense develops in Oakland, California. The Promised Land (1967-1968) - The escalating Vietnam War further divided America, and the governent’s War on Poverty began to suffer.
Freedom March Freedom March
Call Number: V 727Format: VHSProducers: Estuary PressCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Freedom March features the San Francisco civil rights protest march of May 26, 1963, sponsored by Bay Area black churches and the labor movement in the shocked aftermath of the Birmingham, Alabama bombing of a black church, killing five children. The film shows the march down Market Street and the rally with speakers at the Civic Center.