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, 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 We are also in the process of scanning and uploading thousands of historical documents which enrich our media holdings.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.

Health and Environmental Justice

The Health and Environmental Justice Collection includes a range of audio, video, and paper materials concerning movements that fight corporate and state exploitation of public health and the environment. Many materials within the collection intersect with anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and anti-war movements  The collection features a diverse set of narratives from across the globe with topics ranging from international perspectives on the dangers of nuclear power and indigenous land rights to domestic issues of environmental racism, AIDS in the Third World,  food sovereignty,and disparity in pregnancy-related deaths. A highlight of the collection is the information on environmental activists like Judi Bari, Jeff Luers, and members of the Plowshares Movement. The collection includes newsletters and interviews detailing their actions as well as long form pieces that explore the methods of the environmentalist movement. This collection also contains copies of Turnover, a newsletter of the People's Food System in the Bay Area during the mid-1970s.

Subcollections

  • Turnover
    Turnover was the newsletter of the People's Food System, a Bay Area network of food collectives that provided cheap organic produce from 1973 to 1978.

Documents

Environmentalism: Lack of Racial Diversity Environmentalism: Lack of Racial Diversity
Date: 6/25/1999Format: PamphletCollection: Health and Environmental Justice
Interview with New Afrikan Anarchist POW Ojore N. Lutalo. Questions posed by Tim Lapietra.
Who Bombed Judi Bari? FBI Repression of Activists in the 90's Who Bombed Judi Bari? FBI Repression of Activists in the 90's
Call Number: Format: PamphletCollection: Health and Environmental Justice
An overview of the 1990 car bombing that left environmental activist Judi Bari crippled. In the subsequent FBI investigation, Bari and her fellow activist Darryl Cherney were accused of perpetrating the bombing themselves. These baseless accusations fit into the larger narrative of the legacy of COINTELPRO and activist repression.
The Proper Way to Harvest Wheat? Direct Action for the 90's The Proper Way to Harvest Wheat? Direct Action for the 90's
Call Number: Format: PamphletCollection: Health and Environmental Justice
A reflection on tactics for direct action in the environmental justice and anti-war movements, specifically as they relate to the Plowshares Movement and Earth First! movements. As the author puts it, this pamphlet explores the following questions: "How can we make sure our organizations can survive spying, counter-intelligence 'dirty tricks,' and outright repression? What kinds of militant direct action are appropriate to our politics (and our time and place)? And how can we build a revolutionary movement so we aren't just isolated specks drifting in American culture?"
War in the Gulf: An Enviromental Perspective War in the Gulf: An Enviromental Perspective
Publisher: Political Ecology GroupDate: 1/1991Call Number: Format: ReportCollection: Health and Environmental Justice
Written during the second week of the Persian Gulf War, this report examines some of the ecological and human consequences of US environmental terrorism in Vietnam and Persian Gulf. Records the cost of militarism on the home front--cutting social services, environmental regulations, and a growing national debt. Includes environmentalist demands and vision of a sustainable world.