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

Fannie Lou Hamer Fannie Lou Hamer
Call Number: CD 038Format: CDProducers: Freedom Archives, WRBCCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Compilation of Fannie Lou Hamer audio including her singing, also a WRBC program made in 1977 to commemorate her death (no actuality)
Fannie Lou Hamer Fannie Lou Hamer
Date: 9/28/1965Call Number: CD 699Format: CDProducers: Colin EdwardsCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Discusses conditions in Mississippi, role of the police & how the federal government won't protect peoples civil rights. Remembers Chaney, Goodman & Schwerner murders, admires the Deacons for Defense, Malcolm X (who was to have come to Mississippi the day after his assassination). Comments on the Muslim movement, how she doesn't agree with separation, suggests that Martin Luther King and the SCLC were too middle class, is hopeful about youth and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Discusses her life in Mississippi, trying to organize, voting rights. Also describes her attempt to register to vote, arrest & jail - particularly how cops forced other prisoners to beat her under threat of death (they were first made to drink corn whiskey) and despite federal hearings "those same men are still wearing their guns."