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.

Search Results

"Move: The Spirit of Resistance" "Move: The Spirit of Resistance"
Call Number: V 263Format: VHSCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Narrated by Howard Zinn, several interviewees discuss the history of The Move organization created by John Africa and terrorized by the Philadelphia police department.
Black Flag: Organ of the Anarchist Black Cross Black Flag: Organ of the Anarchist Black Cross
Publisher: Black Flag GroupYear: 1979Volume Number: Vol. 5-8Format: PeriodicalCollection: Black Flag
Contains a photo spread by artist Eul
Message from the People to the SLA Message from the People to the SLA
Author: Members of the Poor Oppressed Communities of the Bay AreaDate: 3/31/1974Volume Number: 31-MarFormat: CorrespondenceCollection: Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA)
This letter from the poor oppressed communities of the Bay Area was written March 31, 1974. It addresses demands from the Symbionese Liberation Army to help their communities after the Hearst donations.