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 Show - Part 1 Paul Robeson Show - Part 1
Date: 10/19/1976Call Number: CD 207Format: CDProducers: Emiliano EcheverriaProgram: Paul Robeson ShowCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Biographical commentary on Robeson throughout, with excerpts from Lawrence Brown, LLoyd L. Brown, William L. Patterson, including reading from Here I Stand. Recordings of Robeson singing: Deep River, Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child, I’ve Got A Home In That Rock, Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho, Waterboy, By And By (duet with Lawrence Brown), Old Man River, Mood Indigo, My Way, Lonely Road, Autumn Skies (sung in English and Russian), The Four Insurgent Generals (sung in English and Spanish), Ballad For Americans & Joe Hill. Same as PR 003
Tribute to Paul Robeson, WBAI Tribute to Paul Robeson, WBAI
Date: 1/1/1968Call Number: CD 342Format: CDProgram: WBAICollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Tribute to Paul Robeson, WBAI Second side of tape continues the WBAI 1968 tribute to Robeson’s 70 birthday: Robeson recording of “Go Down Moses;” the last speech of Othello, with Robeson’s introduction; narrative on Robeson’s life by William L. Patterson; recordig made by the Westchester Committee for Law & Order following the Peekskill “riots” of 1949, with the Weavers singing “Hold the Line,” and Pete Seeger, Howard Fast, Alice Childress, Fred Hillerman telling the true story of the attacks at Peekskill and commenting on Robeson’s fightback; recording of Robeson singing “The House I Live In.” Also contains recordings from the May 18, 1952 Peace Arch Concert and the 1957 concert via trans-atlantic cable to the Eisteddfod Festival in Wales. Same as PR 077