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

Knowing Injustice - Part 2 Knowing Injustice - Part 2
Date: 9/21/1996Call Number: PM 307BFormat: Cass BCollection: Prisons - Women
Pam Africa speaks about freeing political prisoners, especially Mumia Abu-Jamal. The government and police should be held accountable for their actions. Maria Telesco highlights the injustices of death row and the death penalty for women prisoners.
Control Units: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown Control Units: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Date: 1/1/1988Call Number: V 563Format: VHSProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Basic introduction to the Marion control unit prison and the spread of its techniques, with historical background, data tables on growth of prison population, violations of human rights/torture, political prisoners, overall structure of white supremacy and the role of prisons as control mechanism for people of color and social justice movement leaders.
Terre-Haute Channel 2 NewsCast Report on prison demonstrations May 4, 1996 Terre-Haute Channel 2 NewsCast Report on prison demonstrations May 4, 1996
Date: 5/4/1996Call Number: V 617Format: VHSProducers: WTWD Channel 2 Terre HauteCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Short news report about demonstrations at Indiana State Prison in Carlisle and the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute. The protesters were part of a national campaign against the death penalty, control units and the misuse of taxpayer resources. Interview with Sister Kathleen Desautels of 8th Day Center.
Control Units: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown Control Units: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Date: 1/1/1988Call Number: V 641Format: DV CamProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Excerpts from a Basic introduction to the Marion control unit prison and the spread of its techniques, with historical background, data tables on growth of prison population, violations of human rights/torture, political prisoners, overall structure of white supremacy and the role of prisons as control mechanism for people of color and social justice movement leaders.
The Death Penalty in Georgia and in General The Death Penalty in Georgia and in General
Date: 8/2/1996Call Number: JG/ 160BFormat: Cass BProducers: Judy GerberProgram: A Defiant HeartCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
Judy Gerber plays recordings of speeches by two men Pierre Sonay, the secretary general of Amnesty International, and Steven Bright, the director for the Southern Center for Human Rights. Both men speak out against the death penalty and both choose to relate the death penalty in Georgia to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Less than 40 miles away from the Olympic stadium, more than 100 men were being held on death row, which is ironic because the Atlanta Olympic committee purports itself as the capital of human rights. Pierre and Bright both cite evidence that the Georgia death penalty disproportionately targets black men, re-affirming the racist nature of criminal justice in the United States.