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

Focus on Race in Black History Month Focus on Race in Black History Month
Date: 2/2/1996Call Number: JG/ 097Format: CassetteProducers: Judy GerberProgram: A Defiant HeartCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
Focus on Race in Black History Month. Interview with Charlene Kotherine, publisher of 'Venus' magazine and an activist in the African American Gay community in Atlanta, GA. Kotherine discuses the recent rally of gay and lesbian blacks in honor of Bayard Rustin at the Atlanta Martin Luther King celebrations, done in hopes of raising visibility for the movement and educating the larger black community about black gays and lesbians. She notes a recent more positive reception towards the gay community as a whole in Atlanta and increasing numbers of black gays and lesbians who have come out in the past five years. Kotherine believes nonetheless that coming out still unfortunately remains a privlidge of high economic status for blacks. She notes the need for a separate black gay and lesbian movement outside the mainstream gay and lesbian movement in Atlanta because of unique race concerns and the black need for acceptance from within the power bases of their community which has thus far been hesitant to accept them. She notes the steps forward that black gays and lesbians have made at organizing over the past year, including organizing a black gay pride parade.