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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, specifcally AND/+, NOT/-, and OR operators. 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.
Welcome to the Freedom Archives' Digital Search Engine.The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings which date from the late-1960s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements. We are also in the process of scanning and uploading thousands of historical documents which enrich our media holdings. Our collection includes weekly news, poetry, music programs; in-depth interviews and reports on social and cultural issues; numerous voices from behind prison walls; diverse activists; and pamphlets, journals and other materials from many radical organizations and movements.

Prison - Newspapers

This collection contains periodicals focusing on prison and prisoners' rights. Some of these periodicals are/were published on the outside, some were published inside and most represent a collaboration across the walls. Topics of coverage include the US prisoners movement, the death penalty, conditions inside prison, arts and education inside prisons and much more.     

Subcollections

  • Arm the Spirit
    Arm the Spirit
    This collection contains the prison publications Anvil and Arm the Spirit. These publications were fueled by the modern prison movement and the growing mass militancy of the 1970s.
  • Break the Chains
    Break the Chains
    Break the Chains is a non-hierarchical collective working toward building an egalitarian society free of prisons. Their focus is on prison issues, including fighting state repression, prisoner support and prison abolition.
  • Bulldozer
    Bulldozer
    The Bulldozer collective was formed in February 1980 when 4-5 activists from various places in southern Ontario decided to put out newsletters (Prison News Service/ The Marionette) dealing with prison-related issues.
  • Coalition for Prisoners
    Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter
    Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights (CPR) produced a newsletter for 36 years which amplified the voices of prisoners and covered a range of prisoner rights issues. The newsletter had over 9,000 subscribers, reaching prisoners' families, friends, and allies.
  • The Freeworld Times
    The Freeworld Times
    The Freeworld Times was published in Minnesota and relates news on national and international topics relevant to prisoner experiences.
  • The Insurgent
    The Insurgent
    The Insurgent was the newsletter of the Committee to Fight Repression based in New York City.
  • Lucasville/Skatzes
    Lucasville/Skatzes
    Five prisoners on death row in Ohio were convicted of participating in the murder of other prisoners and a guard during the Lucasville Prison Riot of April 1993. Lucasville became famous for its inter-racial solidarity in a prison known for racial unease.
  • NEPA News
    NEPA News
    NEPA, the New England Prisoners Association, was a multiracial coalition of prisoners, ex-prisoners, and supporters on the outside who came together to mobilize for prison reform. They also created NEPA News with distribution throughout the Northeast.
  • The Outlaw
    The Outlaw
    Published by the Prisoners' Union, the Outlaw published stories to promote the expansion of the movement for prisoners' unions, and draw attention to prison conditions, prisoner rights and opportunities for rehabilitation.
  • Peoples Witness
    Peoples Witness
    This publication reports on major issues affecting prisoners from a Communist, Marxist-Leninist political perspective. It was published in Sacramento, California.
  • Prison Art Newsletter
    Prison Art Newsletter
    Founded by former political prisoner Ed Mead in 2001, the intended audience was political prisoners and the focus was news and analysis which could not be found in the bourgeois media. The newsletter came out every month for 6 years.
  • Prison Focus
    Prison Focus
    Prison Focus is a publication of California Prison Focus, a nonprofit organization that works with and on behalf of prisoners in California control units and other institutions.
  • The Anvil
    The Anvil was a newspaper that was published by the United Prisoners Union, a prison reform group active in the 1970s until the 1975 assassination of its leader and editor of this newspaper, Popeye Jackson.

Documents

Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 13 Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 13
Date: 7/1998Volume Number: 13Format: MonographCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Bulletin representing George Skatzes and the Lucasville Five by mapping out the circumstances of the Rebellion and it's aftermath. This edition outlines some of the conditions at the Ohio State Penitentiary, the state supermax prison in Youngstown, OH where the Lucasville 5 were transferred. The bulletin contains information on issues of most concern to the prisoners at OSP including criteria for selection, lack of notice, mental health, hygiene, medical treatment, and grievance procedures.
Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 15 Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 15
Date: 10/1998Volume Number: 15Format: MonographCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Bulletin representing George Skatzes and the Lucasville Five by mapping out the circumstances of the Rebellion and it's aftermath. This is the first in a series of bulletins written as a play or "docudrama" articulating what led up to the rebellion, details of the rebellion, and what happened in its wake. The docudrama contains evidence not allowed in the trials of the Lucasville 5.
Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 24 Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 24
Date: 9/1999Call Number: Volume Number: 24Format: MonographCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Bulletin representing George Skatzes and the Lucasville Five by mapping out the circumstances of the Rebellion and it's aftermath. Part of a series of bulletins written as a play or "docudrama" articulating what led up to the rebellion, details of the rebellion, and what happened in its wake. The docudrama contains evidence not allowed in the trials of the Lucasville 5.
Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 25 Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 25
Date: 10/1999Call Number: Volume Number: 25Format: MonographCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Bulletin representing George Skatzes and the Lucasville Five by mapping out the circumstances of the Rebellion and it's aftermath. Part of a series of bulletins written as a play or "docudrama" articulating what led up to the rebellion, details of the rebellion, and what happened in its wake. The docudrama contains evidence not allowed in the trials of the Lucasville 5.
Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 26 Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 26
Date: 11/1999Call Number: Volume Number: 26Format: MonographCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Bulletin representing George Skatzes and the Lucasville Five by mapping out the circumstances of the Rebellion and it's aftermath. Part of a series of bulletins written as a play or "docudrama" articulating what led up to the rebellion, details of the rebellion, and what happened in its wake. The docudrama contains evidence not allowed in the trials of the Lucasville 5.
Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 20 Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 20
Date: 4/1999Call Number: Volume Number: 20Format: MonographCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Bulletin representing George Skatzes and the Lucasville Five by mapping out the circumstances of the Rebellion and it's aftermath. Part of a series of bulletins written as a play or "docudrama" articulating what led up to the rebellion, details of the rebellion, and what happened in its wake. The docudrama contains evidence not allowed in the trials of the Lucasville 5.
Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 11 Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 11
Date: 5/1998Call Number: Volume Number: 11Format: MonographCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Bulletin representing George Skatezes and the Lucasville Five by mapping out the circumstances of the Rebellion and it's aftermath. This issue accounts in detail the day Officer Robert Vallandingham was killed including transcriptions of conversations between those involved.
Letter on Human Rights Violations from prisoners in Lucasville, OH Letter on Human Rights Violations from prisoners in Lucasville, OH
Call Number: Format: CorrespondenceCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Summary of a document entitled "COMPLAINT Regarding Human Rights Violations at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility" filed to Amnesty International by prisoners incarcerated in the Administrative Control Unit in at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, OH.
Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 23 Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 23
Date: 8/1999Call Number: Volume Number: 23Format: MonographCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Bulletin representing George Skatzes and the Lucasville Five by mapping out the circumstances of the Rebellion and it's aftermath. Part of a series of bulletins written as a play or "docudrama" articulating what led up to the rebellion, details of the rebellion, and what happened in its wake. The docudrama contains evidence not allowed in the trials of the Lucasville 5.
Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 16 Skatzes/Lucasville Five Support Bulletin No. 16
Date: 11/1998Call Number: Volume Number: 16Format: MonographCollection: Lucasville/Skatzes
Bulletin representing George Skatzes and the Lucasville Five by mapping out the circumstances of the Rebellion and it's aftermath. This a revised Act I Scene I in a series of bulletins written as a play or "docudrama" articulating what led up to the rebellion, details of the rebellion, and what happened in its wake. The docudrama contains evidence not allowed in the trials of the Lucasville 5.