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

Women in Prison Women in Prison
Call Number: PM 210Format: Cass A & BCollection: Prisons - Women
Intervew of Women in Prison, Dublin, CA 1995. Political prisoners Dylcia Pagan, Linda Evans, Ida Robinson, and Marilyn Buck are asked to speak about themselves and why they are in prison. The women also discuss the GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs), NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), the lack of wages and benefits for the poor and oppressed, and the wrongs of the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Ida Robinson speaks about families of ethnic minorities, and Marilyn Buck speaks about how political prisoners aren’t violent, they are just casualties during the conflict. The women discuss the state of the poor white woman, how is marginalized because no one is fighting for her and she has no representation.
AIDS in Focus: Women of Color with AIDS AIDS in Focus: Women of Color with AIDS
Call Number: JG/ 071Format: CassetteProducers: Judy GerberProgram: AIDS in FocusCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
This is a short recording from the Care Fair for women of color with AIDS. Black women are one of the fastest growing population of those contracting AIDS. At the time of this recording, however, much of the research on HIV and AIDS was done on men, so the differences in symptoms and signs had not been discovered. There is an interview with Dayson Dixon, a Black women living with AIDS and she speaks about the lack of services available for those with AIDS and their families. She echoes the concern that there needs to be more research done on how HIV and AIDS affects women and especially Black women. Janet Cleveland, a copy editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution speaks as well.
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.
Les Chanteuses Africaines Les Chanteuses Africaines
Call Number: JG/ 106AFormat: Cass ACollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
Broadcasting from the Atlanta-based WFRG station, Alicia Banks hosts her weekly radio program "Les Chanteuses Africaines: The African Female Singers featuring the Musical & Literary Voices of Black Women". In this particular recording, the show at hand is part of a special marathon of gay and lesbian themed programming at WFRG. During the course of the show, Banks addresses the intersecting issues of race, homophobia and the AIDS crisis. She also critically examines contradictions of homophobia within racially oppressed communities, and dissects the notion of the need of a singular construct of closet and coming out. Included are clips of stand-up comedy from Lea Delaria, Whoopi Goldberg and Sam Kinison, There are also songs performed by and are about LGBT people. The songs “B.D. Woman Blues” by Lucille Bogen and “The Prove It To Me Blues” by Ma Rainey remain in good audio quality, while some of the other songs included are of a poorer recording quality.