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

Action Proposal Action Proposal
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1995Format: ProposalCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Regarding action component of the national campaign
Letter to "friend" Letter to "friend"
Author: Carlos (a prisoner at Florence)Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1995Format: CorrespondenceCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
1/8/1996 letter from inmate, name witheld.
To the Event Commemorating the Marion Lockdown To the Event Commemorating the Marion Lockdown
Publisher: Political Prisoners and Prisoners of WarYear: 1995Format: FlyerCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Advertisement for event commemorating 12 years of Marion Lockdown.
The Prison Quiz The Prison Quiz
Publisher: Campaign to confront the Racist Imprisonment BingeYear: 1995Format: EphemeraCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Quiz regarding violent crime and incarceration rates for black people.
Demonstration Demonstration
Publisher: The Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1995Format: FlyerCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
National day of protests "against Newt, Edgar, Clinton and all the others who are cutting back all social programs"
Mass Incarceration and control Units: Crime Control or Social Control? Mass Incarceration and control Units: Crime Control or Social Control?
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1995Format: TranscriptCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Transcript of presentations Alan Berkman, Nozomi Ikuta, Sanyika Shakur, Jose Lopez from program held on October 21, 1995 in Chicago, Illinois.
Reflections on the First Year of the Control Unit Prison at Florence Reflections on the First Year of the Control Unit Prison at Florence
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1995Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Collection of personal essays from prisoners. Sent to the October 21st program.
Urgent Action Required Urgent Action Required
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion lockdownYear: 1995Format: CorrespondenceCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Letter regarding rebellions in US federal prisons in Alabama, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee 11/1/1995
Walkin Steel Walkin Steel
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1995Volume Number: Fall 1995Format: PeriodicalCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Articles include: U.S. Incarceration, The Crime and Imprisonment Quiz, Florence Opens, Juvenile Justice in Illinois, Emergency Response, National Network, Continuing Crime of Black Imprisonment, Pelican Bay Suit Decision, California Prison Shootings, Savage Inequalities Book Review, Black Health in the US, Mumia Abu Jamal.
Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control?
Date: 10/21/1995Call Number: PM 336Format: Cass A & BProducers: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML)Collection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Mind Control or Social Control? About closing the control units at Marion Prison. Nancy Kurshan of CEML (Committee to End the Marion Lockdown), Dr. Alan Berkman who has provided medical care for Black Liberation Army and Panther members as well as AIM activists at Wounded Knee in the 1970s. Berkman also speaks about being a former political prisoner, the prison system and control units as forms of social control which target revolutionary movements. Film segments about former LA gang member and Pelican Bay prisoner Sanyika Shakur. Transcript available for download.