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

Contradictions Within the Black Panther Contradictions Within the Black Panther
Date: 9/17/1974Call Number: CD 023Format: CDProducers: Bruce SolowayCollection: Black Panther Party general
The Black Panther Party Intercommunal Section in Algiers, demanding the expulsion of David Hilliard and criticizing Huey Newton. Released by the East Coast Ministry of Information in New York, March 4, 1971. Recorded in Algiers on videotape, February 28, 1971. Huey Newton calls out Hilliard on the telephone. Kathleen Cleaver speaks of Hilliard as revisionists, or people who are revolutionary in rhetoric but counter-revolutionary in action. Issues of the Central Panther Party, led by revisionists turning their backs on revolutionaries who have been arrested. This is basically a compilation of testimonials of high profile Panther Party members speaking on the contradictions within the party, namely the expulsion of certain members expelled because of their less than favorable public image or agenda. Judy Douglass declared insane by people in the central party. Everyone speaking here is calling for the expulsion of David Hilliard from his position as Chief of Staff for the Black Panther party. Also testimonials for reinstatement of New York Panther 21 and Geronimo.
Black and New Afrikan Political Prisoners Black and New Afrikan Political Prisoners
Date: 11/29/1991Call Number: PM 251Format: CassetteProducers: Prison RadioProgram: You Can’t Jail The Spirit #3Collection: New Afrikan Prisoners
About the Black political repression, exile, incarceration, and the criminal justice system's interference with political resistance through a discussion of the lives of Mumia Abu Jamal, Assata Shakur, and Geronimo Pratt. Soffiyah Elijah, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, and Kiilu Nyasha, discuss the criminalization of revolutionaries and the future of radical organizing.
Black August Revisted Black August Revisted
Call Number: KP 196Format: DATProducers: Kiilu NyashaCollection: Geronimo Pratt
Interview with Geronimo Pratt by Reggie Major at Mule Creek State Prison shortly before Pratt was denied parole after having spent 24 years in prison. Falsely convicted of murder and robbery in 1970 as part of J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO program to destroy Black Liberation groups in the late 1960's, Pratt spent 27 years in California State Prisons. In the interview Pratt talks about his conviction, his eight years of solitary confinement and the transformational power he sees in contemporary street gangs.
Cuatemoc Cardenas at the Commonwealth Club (Part 2 of 2) and KPFA Morning Show Interview with Pat Faydom, Bobby Seale and David Hillard Cuatemoc Cardenas at the Commonwealth Club (Part 2 of 2) and KPFA Morning Show Interview with Pat Faydom, Bobby Seale and David Hillard
Date: 11/16/1989Call Number: CV 042BFormat: Cass BCollection: Chuy Varela Collection
Conclusion of Cuatemoc Cardena at Commonwealth Club Q and A session (Part 2 of 2). KFPA Morning Show interviews with Pam Fadem, Bobby Seale and David Hilliard about Political Prisoner Geronimo Pratt and the mobilization to free him.
National People’s Congress - Attica Event National People’s Congress - Attica Event
Date: 9/20/1997Call Number: PM 384Format: Cass A & BCollection: Geronimo Pratt
Includes an update on Leonard Peltier by the National People’s Congress, the American Indian Movement and the Bring Peltier Home Committee. Keynote address is by Geronimo Ji Jaga, just released from prison three months previously. He recounts his own conditions and experiences in prison, how much of his own education was facilitated by his cellmates and the importance of education in the revolutionary struggle. He talks about creating the prison lawyers manual and assisting fellow comrades in filing suits and knowing and understanding prisoners’ rights. Geronimo also focuses on the importance of using international law to validate revolutionary activity, framing the struggle in an international lens and the necessity of continuing to approach the United Nations. Ji Jaga touches on solidarity and explains to the audience that all races can be comrades in the struggle… furthermore detailing how adept the “powers that be” are in creating fictitious organizations that perpetuate divisions. Finally, Geronimo speaks on the essential role that women have played in the struggle and gives updates on the status of various political prisoners being held around the United States.
Black and New Afrikan Political Prisoners Black and New Afrikan Political Prisoners
Date: 11/29/1991Call Number: PM 390Format: CassetteProducers: Prison RadioProgram: You Can’t Jail The Spirit #3Collection: New Afrikan Prisoners
On Black political repression, exile, incarceration, and the criminal justice system's interference with political resistance through a discussion of the lives of Mumia Abu Jamal, Assata Shakur, and Geronimo Pratt. Soffiyah Elijah, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, and Kiilu Nyasha, discuss the criminalization of revolutionaries and the future of radical organizing.
Behind Censorship Political Prisoners Behind Censorship Political Prisoners
Call Number: V 743Format: VHSCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
This documentary is about political prisoners who participated in the black liberation movement. This documentary contains interviews with Assata Shakur, Geronimo Pratt, Mumia Abu Jamal. This documentary was created with the intent of spreading awareness for all political prisoners in the U.S.