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.

Committee to End the Marion Lockdown

The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML) was a movement organization that opposed control unit prisons in particular, and racism and oppression in general. It was founded in 1985 and came to a close in 2000. Over the course of those 15 years, CEML led and organized hundreds of educational programs and demonstrations in many parts of the country and tried to build a national movement against “end-of-the-line” prisons. Along the way the Committee wrote thousands of pages of educational and agitational literature and pioneered new ways of analyzing and fighting against this national quagmire that morphed into the proliferation of the “prison industrial complex.”

Collection includes: Publications on their efforts to shut down the Marion Prison control unit, prevent the opening of USP Florence, CO; protests against toxic water at Crab Orchard Lake; efforts to improve conditions for inmates; efforts to stop the proliferation of Control Units in general; and further human rights and social justice in the US prison system.

Kurshan, N. (2012). OUT OF CONTROL: A Chronological Narrative of the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown's 15 Year Struggle (manuscript ed., p. 1).

Documents

Walkin' Steel Walkin' Steel
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1997Volume Number: SpringFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Articles include: The Continuing Saga of Shame, Political Prisoners Commemorate 25th Anniversary of Attica, Political Prisoners speak out on Marion conditions, Women in Prison, NCSDCUP Meeting, Salute to the Rev. Michael Yasutake
Walkin' Steel Walkin' Steel
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1992Volume Number: Vol. 2-1Format: PeriodicalCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
CEML Newsletter. Includes: 12 Month Campaign; Prisoners Resist Westville; Florence Update; May 2nd Illinois Prison Tour; May 2nd National Reports; International Interest;
Walkin' Steel Walkin' Steel
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1992Volume Number: Vol. 1-3Format: PeriodicalCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
CEML newsletter. Includes: The Call for Joint Actions; The New Warden At Marion; Water Update; What is A Control unit Prison?; May Actions Against control Units; Horrors of Westville Control unit; Prisoners Demonstrate Solidarity; Pelican bay Prisoners Sue; People to Contact; Human Rights Watch Report; Get In Touch With CEML
Walkin' Steel Walkin' Steel
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1998Volume Number: FallFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Includes: ADX Florence, the 4th Year; Prisoners chained during childbirth; Youth crime; Why prisons don't prevent crime; Prisoners soaked by phone companies; Art & revolution; Billy Hands Robinson remembered; Mary L. Johnson continues struggling; The prison-industrial complex
Walkin' Steel Walkin' Steel
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1991Volume Number: Vol.1-1Format: PeriodicalCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Newsletter devoted to the abolition of control unit prisons. Spring 1991 issue. Includes: From Attica to Marion to Florence; Sept. 21st Attica Commemoration; Attica=Resistance; Resources on Attica; New York Control Unit Prisons; control Unit Prisons Proliferate; Florence Update; People to Contact; Who Killed Mcduffie; Toxic Water at Marion - Changes?; Get In Touch with CEML
Walkin' Steel Walkin' Steel
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1991Volume Number: Vol. 1-1Format: PeriodicalCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Newsletter devoted to the abolition of control unit prisons. Spring 1991 issue. Includes: The Proposed Prison in Florence, Colorado: A "New and Improved" Marion; A Policy of Containment Control Unit Prisons Flourish; A Chronology of Contamination the Cotter Uranium Corporation; Who We Are. Also includes Supplement: Questions About the New Control Unit Prison Being Planned at Florence, Colorado.