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

SWAPO: South West Africa People’s Organization SWAPO: South West Africa People’s Organization
Date: 4/22/1981Call Number: AFR 002Format: CassetteCollection: SWAPO- Namibia
El Salvadoran and South African solidarity with SWAPO (Southwest African People’s Organization), support for national independence movement, opposing US imperialism’s intervention in Namibia. Carlos Martinez representing the movement in El Salvador and Ahmed Obafemi representing the Republic of New Africa (RNA). recorded off bullhorn at a demonstration in New York.
New African Program New African Program
Date: 10/20/1982Call Number: KP 520Format: Cass A & BCollection: New Afrikan People's Organization
This tape features a panel held on October 20th, 1982, as part of a week wide program for building support for African Freedom Fighters. Ahmed Obafemi, member and one of the leaders of NAPO (New Afrikan People’s Organization), opens the panel discussion by introducing other panel members, many of whom have been political prisoners. George Edward Tait presents two poems, “War in America” and “The Choice”, which focus on his life as an African American and how they are amidst a war, a war into which they were born. Ahmed Obafemi follows this with his demand that those imprisoned fighting for Black Liberation are acknowledged by international law as “prisoners of war/political prisoners.” Finally, Ben Chambers urges supporters of African Freedom Fighters to take up organizing at a local level.
SF Teach in 1983 (Tape 1) SF Teach in 1983 (Tape 1)
Call Number: KP 522Format: Cass A & BCollection: New Afrika
Ahmed Obafemi is one of the main speakers at a San Francisco Teach- In which occurred in 1983. The KKK and the Republic of New Afrika/ The Black Liberation Movement are key topics in his and other’s speeches. Specifically mentioned are The Cowboys (a group of SFPD policemen from Richmond) who are connected with police brutality and violence against blacks and their homes. Richmond is proclaimed as the center of the Klan in the Bay Area. Obafemi also speaks about the importance of Malcolm X as a Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter, how his name changes represent the progression and changes within the Black Liberation Movement and current effort to distort the legacy of Malcolm X.
SF Teach in 1983 (Tape 2) SF Teach in 1983 (Tape 2)
Call Number: KP 523Format: Cass A & BCollection: New Afrika
Ahmed Obafemi is one of the main speakers at a San Francisco Teach- In which occurred in 1983. The KKK and the Republic of New Afrika/ The Black Liberation Movement are key topics in his and other’s speeches. Obafemi speaks about going up against the Ku Klux Klan and that the only solution for Black liberation is through the struggle for land. An unknown female speaker provides greater detail about KKK resurgence in Texas and simultaneous Klan activity in California. The speaker proclaims the need for anti- Klan movement building and denounces the NAAWP (National Association for the Advancement of White People).