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

White House Sit-In Flyer White House Sit-In Flyer
Publisher: Students for a Democratic SocietyFormat: FlyerCollection: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Flyer for a planned mass sit-in at the White House in protest of the Vietnam War
RE: Crisis Response RE: Crisis Response
Author: Paul BoothPublisher: Students for a Democratic SocietyFormat: Press ReleaseCollection: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Proposals for local coordinators to discuss before the May 9th SDS meeting at Swarthmore College
March Agenda March Agenda
Publisher: Students for a Democratic SocietyFormat: AgendaCollection: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Schedule for the March on Washington to end the war in Vietnam
Urgent: SDS Chapters, March coordinators and other local groups Urgent: SDS Chapters, March coordinators and other local groups
Authors: Paul Booth and Todd GitlinPublisher: Students for a Democratic SocietyFormat: Press ReleaseCollection: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Includes a plan of action for the weeks following the March on Washington, including end the war in Vietnam week, May 9th Conference on Summer Program, and a National Teach-in.
Free the SLA Free the SLA
Author: SLAFormat: StatementCollection: Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)
This statement written from the "underground" critiques the current revolutionary groups and provides directions for how the Left should continue. Its idea to unite the masses includes building a non-racist movement, incorporating the ideology of feminism into all theory and practice, and creating organizations capable of surviving repression from oppositional forces.