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

Interview with Sandy Nicholas Interview with Sandy Nicholas
Date: 3/1/1997Call Number: SS 011AFormat: Cass AProducers: Sue SuprianoCollection: Sue Supriano Interviews and Programs
Sandy Nicholas on mass media's body construction.
Discussion among black women about white liberals, radicalism and solidarity. Discussion among black women about white liberals, radicalism and solidarity.
Call Number: KP 069Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: Black Power/Black Nation
Black Women discussing many issues that face them including white liberals and fear, and the media and its outlets.
Ending men’s violence - pathways to a gender-just world -- “a feminist future for men” Ending men’s violence - pathways to a gender-just world -- “a feminist future for men”
Call Number: JG/ 067Format: CassetteProducers: Judy GerberCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
bell hooks speaks at a conference on masculinity and feminism from 1990, where she references her fourth book, Yearning, as well as different depictions of masculinity in popular culture, especially television and film. Specific topics hooks addresses are that all women and men long to be loved and long to be free, socialization of black males versus white males, and how the media and popular culture perpetuates gender stereotypes. bell hooks concludes by saying the feminist transformation can heal men by deflecting focus on power and moving the focus to pain. Following her lecture are quick speeches and by Patricia Merchant, an Episcopal priest, John McDonald, founder of a Canadian AIDS support group, and Claude Franklin, a professor of sociology at Ohio State.
Gender Issues in Russia, 1992 Gender Issues in Russia, 1992
Call Number: JG/ 085BFormat: Cass BProducers: Judy GerberProgram: A Defiant HeartCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
Interview with Gene Peters, lesbian & gay activist who traveled to Russia in 1992 with Friendship Force to examine women's issues after the dissolution of the USSR. Peters talked extensively with female Russian professors and officials. She describes how many women were forced out of the workforce with the fall of communism, particularly in high status jobs. 70% of the Russian unemployed are women and fewer women have been elected to office since the fall of USSR. Peters describes the work of the Russian Federation of Women, a Soviet women's organization. She notes a lack of adequate medical supplies and dearth of contraceptives in Russia that renders an average of 8 abortions per woman. She describes the AIDS epidemic in the former USSR and current Russian AIDS campaigns. She also describes political reform initiatives for gay men & women who were brutally repressed under the Soviet regime, as well as the development of open gay life. She concludes with a general warning against Western media coverage of Russia, noting remarkable social retrogression and stratification in the wake of the fall of the USSR.