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

Interviews about George Jackson Interviews about George Jackson
Date: 9/6/1971Call Number: PM 097Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Grenada TVCollection: George Jackson
Camera Roll 11: interviews with Black Panthers who were incarcerated with George Jackson at San Quentin; discussing how other prisoners were encouraged by and respected George’s defiance of the State’s orders; talk about the hole and degrading mistreatment; discussion about the yard and racist pitting of groups against each other by guards ; discuss what kind of self-discipline George had and what kind you need once inside ; Camera Roll 12: a former inmate of San Quentin pointing out various elements of a prison on a diagram - not much good on audio only.
Black Panther Garage Class Recordings Black Panther Garage Class Recordings
Date: 9/8/1971Call Number: PM 101Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: George Jackson
Camera Roll 17: Bobby Seale talking to kids in a garage class about George Jackson. Black Panther Party kids singing about George Jackson and other Black Panther Party songs.
Black Panther Party Political Education on George Jackson Black Panther Party Political Education on George Jackson
Date: 9/8/1971Call Number: PM 108Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: George Jackson
Bobby Seale preparing to teach in a garage to Panther kids, asking them what they know about George Jackson, where and how long he was incarcerated. Not much material.
KPFA News KPFA News
Call Number: PM 141Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: George Jackson
First news story on KPFA after the death of George Jackson. Read copy only, no actuality.
George Jackson funeral George Jackson funeral
Call Number: PM 114Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: George Jackson
Part of George Jackson’s funeral. Taped recording of woman singing about freedom. Songs plays over and over again. Talking in background but difficult to discern much. After song plays several times, can hear a man giving location of another church where people can view George’s body. Then hear chants of “power to the people”. Woman crying.
The Death of George Jackson The Death of George Jackson
Date: 7/9/1974Call Number: PM 131Format: 1/4 15 ipsCollection: George Jackson
Interviews and sound bites of several different people and groups about the death of George Jackson and the six people killed at San Quentin Federal Prison. Includes interviews with Willy Brown, shoppers at a Berkeley grocery store, and Ronald Reagan. Police riot in San Francisco courtroom 8/26/71.
George Jackson on prisons, the Weather Underground, Black Panther Party George Jackson on prisons, the Weather Underground, Black Panther Party
Date: 7/28/1971Call Number: PM 056Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Max BloomCollection: George Jackson
George Jackson discusses the connections between the prison movement inside and other movements and the importance of democratic centralism to the success of both movements. He discusses the idea of the Black Panther Party as the vanguard party, capable of providing resources for the community. He discusses Mao and Guevara and the idea of revolution in two states. He responds to criticism of the BPP’s statements on the role of women. Also the problems with the defense committees and himself as a possible martyr.