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.

Weather Underground Organization

The Weather Underground Organization (WUO) was a clandestine, militant anti-racist organization that aimed to overthrow US imperialism. It was formed in 1969 by members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) following internal ideological struggle within SDS. Aligning itself with the anti-war movement and supporting Third World liberation struggles, the WUO staged a campaign of numerous bombings and other direct actions from the late 196s to mid-1970s, in solidarity with liberation struggles in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and in the United States. The organization published numerous pamphlets, communiques, and periodicals and a book Prairie Fire: the Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism. The organization disbanded in 1976. In addition to the book, the collection includes monographs from the WUO, communiques, and all issues of the periodical Osawatomie.

Documents

Prarie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism Prarie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism
Author: Bill AyersPublisher: Communications Co.Format: BookCollection: Weather Underground Organization
Details the ideological position of the Weather Underground Organization and American history from their perspective. The flame that sparked Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, Ayer's manifesto details the basis for overthrow of imperialist war-driven domination and the establishment of a socialist society.