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.

Missouri Prison Labor Union

The Missouri Prison Labor Union was organized by prisoners and supporters in 1998 in the hope of bettering the living and working conditions in the state of Missouri prison system.

Documents

Off the Hook Off the Hook
Publisher: Missouri Prisoners' UnionYear: 2004Volume Number: May/June Issue 6Format: PeriodicalCollection: Missouri Prison Labor Union
Contents include: Crossroads at the Devil's House; Duration of Placement in Ad-Seg; The Sheriff Who Issues Pink Underwear; Discrimination Against a Minority; Helen Woodson: the truth bears; Prisoners and the Right to Vote; Invisible Health Crisis; Women on the Row; Alls Well in Iraq- Just Ask the Daed; An Anarchist Captives Thoughts; Chattel Slavery; The Truth Must be Told; Emancipation Without Emancipating