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

Meridel Le Sueur "Let the Bird of the Earth Fly" Meridel Le Sueur "Let the Bird of the Earth Fly"
Collection: Gender and Sexuality
Meridel Le Sueur, with Matthew Siegel on flute, recites part of her poem - "Let the Bird of Earth Fly". Meridel was a lifelong revolutionary, writer, and feminist visionary of French, Irish, and Lakota ancestry, and a Minnesota-based supporter of AIM and all liberation struggles.
Susan Greene: Muralist Susan Greene: Muralist
Author: Susan GreenePublisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: La Lucha Continua: a talking mural in San Francisco
Susan Greene is a social art practitioner, educator and clinical psychologist, using multiple media and formats to reveal, disrupt, and make connections leading to new ways of thinking, seeing and acting. Greene’s practice straddles a range of cultural arenas, new media, public art, video, and installation. She focuses on the borders and migrations involving memory, decolonization and the relationships between creativity, trauma and resilience in the context of globalism. Greene has led or participated in more than 30 public art projects worldwide. Originally from NYC, Greene has been a resident of the Bay Area for 25 years. She is visiting faculty and director of the Learning Center at the San Francisco Art Institute and has a psychotherapy practice in San Francisco.
Wild Poppies Wild Poppies
Author: Marilyn BuckPublisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: La Lucha Continua: a talking mural in San Francisco
Buck recites her poem, "Wild Poppies". This audio was featured on La Luche Continua/The Struggle Continues Talking Mural project, as well as the CD, "Wild Poppies". Marilyn Buck is a poet, activist and an anti-imperialist political prisoner. She began her anti-racist activism as a teen in Texas, organized against the war in Vietnam, and joined SDS and S. F. Newsreel. She fought for the self-determination for all people, and she aligned herself with the Black Liberation Movement. In 1973 she was convicted of purchasing two boxes of handgun ammunition and was given a ten year sentence. After serving four years in Federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia, she was granted a furlough and did not return. The following eight years she was underground.