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.

BLA

The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground, black nationalist militant organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981. The Black Liberation Army was not a centralized, organized group with a common leadership and chain of command. Instead there were various organizations and collectives working together and simultaneously independent of each other.

Documents

BLA Communique No. 14 BLA Communique No. 14
Publisher: BLA Coordinating CommitteeFormat: CommuniqueCollection: BLA
Assata Shakur Communique- Think Positive Assata Shakur Communique- Think Positive
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesFormat: mp3Program: Prison MovementCollection: BLA
Assata Shakur, now in exile in Cuba, was liberated from prison in New Jersey where she was held on charges connected with the Black Liberation Army. This is from her first statement after being liberated from prison. She speaks of positive strategies of revolutionary struggle.
BLA Communiques BLA Communiques
Publisher: BLA Coordinating CommitteeYear: 1971-1972Volume Number: No 1-5, No 12Format: MonographCollection: BLA
Black Liberation Army Communiqu Black Liberation Army Communiqu
Publisher: BLA Coordinating CommitteeDate: 11/5/1981Volume Number: 5-NovFormat: CommuniqueCollection: BLA
The Nature of Black Revolution The Nature of Black Revolution
Format: MonographCollection: BLA
Break De Chains Break De Chains
Publisher: National Committee for the Defense of Jo Anne Chesimard and Clark SquireYear: 1973Format: CompilationCollection: BLA
Open Letter to the white Left in the U.S. Open Letter to the white Left in the U.S.
Authors: R. Dhoruba Moore and Frank Khali AbneyPublisher: B.L.A.Format: StatementCollection: BLA
They're Talking at Sing Sing They're Talking at Sing Sing
Publisher: Daily NewsDate: 1/10/1983Volume Number: 10-JanFormat: PeriodicalCollection: BLA
Photo with BLA sign from cell
Black Liberation Army Communiqu Black Liberation Army Communiqu
Publisher: BLA Coordinating CommitteeDate: 7/16/1983Volume Number: 16-JulFormat: CommuniqueCollection: BLA
Communiqu Communiqu
Publisher: BLA Coordinating CommitteeDate: 8/21/1982Volume Number: 21-AugFormat: CommuniqueCollection: BLA
New Afrikan Freedom Fighter Day- August 21, 1982.