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

From Death Row, this is Mumia Abu Jamal From Death Row, this is Mumia Abu Jamal
Call Number: V 128Format: VHSCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Interview with Mumia Abu Jamal from death row.
From Death Row, this is Mumia Abu Jamal From Death Row, this is Mumia Abu Jamal
Call Number: V 129Format: VHSProducers: Annie Goldson, Lamar WilliamsCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Interview with Mumia Abu Jamal from death row. He covers early history, the Black Panther Party, his journalism, MOVE, his own trial and conviction and death row. EP
Mumia: A Case for Reasonable Doubt Mumia: A Case for Reasonable Doubt
Date: 1/1/1996Call Number: CD 382Format: DVDProducers: Fox LorberCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
For the first time, Mumia speaks on camera from behind prison walls in a television interview. Convicted and sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of a 25-year-old white Philadelphia policeman, former NPR radio journalist and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal has voiced his innocence for 14 years. This high-profile case has garnered the interest of such celebrities as Jesse Jackson, Alice Walker, Paul Newman, Whoopi Goldberg, Ed Asner, Mike Farrell and Danny Glover, who believe Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner. Narrated by Marlene Sanders.
Death Row Radical: Mumia Abu Jamal Death Row Radical: Mumia Abu Jamal
Date: 12/8/2009Call Number: C 10 045Format: Mini DVCollection: COINTELPRO 101 Raw Materials
Comprehensive examination of this high-profile case, from the events of that long-ago night to the fateful decisions made in 1999. Among the many people interviewed are Jamal's current lawyer, the prosecuting attorney, and actor and activist Alec Baldwin. What emerges is a picture far more complicated than what either side would have us believe, a fascinating portrait of justice, crime, race and publicity with a man's life at stake.