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

Inside Attica- An Interview with Frank Smith Inside Attica- An Interview with Frank Smith
Date: 2/14/1972Call Number: PM 155Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Bruce SolowayProgram: WBAICollection: Attica
Bruce Soloway interviews Frank Smith, a prisoner and a leader of the Attica rebellion, isolated from the media since its violent end. Smith speaks on the torture he received following the rebellion, the premeditated murder of LD Barkley, the racial problems created by the institution, the inhumane treatment towards prisoners by the judicial and correctional department, and the lack of educational materials and health care within the prison. Smith emphasizes the need for communication between guards and prisoners and the need for the oppressed people of the United States to start act to change the conditions of their lives. After five years of incarceration Smith reports that Attica has changed for the worse. Excerpted on PM 151.
Remember Attica: Blackout Remember Attica: Blackout
Date: 9/18/1972Call Number: PM 157Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Bruce Soloway, Paul FisherProgram: WBAICollection: Attica
Part III of the “Remember Attica” series. Following the Attica rebellion state officials imposed a news blackout. Days after the state troopers violently ended the rebellion many reporters, lawyers, relatives and doctors are not allowed inside. Commissioner of the State Department of Corrections, Jerry Hoolinan gives a press conference, but offers no answers to the events of the preceding days. The special assistant to the Deputy Attorney General, Robert E. Fisher, gives a public statement and yet leaves the public with no answers. Authorities offer only official statements to the press. The press corners prison guards visiting Attica from other institutions, doctors, lawyers and relatives of prisoners for information. The relatives are worried and were told they could visit , but were not allowed in when they arrived. The doctors and lawyer allowed inside the prison are able to give accounts of the attacks and conditions.
Arthur Eve on Attica Arthur Eve on Attica
Date: 1/1/1972Call Number: PM 156Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Rob CrockerProgram: WBAICollection: Attica
Arthur Eve, black Assemblyman from Buffalo, New York and a member of the Attica rebellion observer committee speaks about what happened during the rebellion. He was one of the first people to enter the prison at the rebellion’s inception. He talks about the involvement of the other observer committee members (Bobby Seale, Kenyatta, The Young Lords, FIGHT, Tom Hicks). Arthur Eve wrote to Governor Rockefeller asking him to come to Attica to avoid massacre. Eve talks about how the prison officials lied to the prisoners, about Frank Smith and his torture by prison officials.