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

James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Big Black speaking about prisons, George Jackson and Attica James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Big Black speaking about prisons, George Jackson and Attica
Call Number: CD 080Format: ProTools CDProducers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Big Black speaking about prisons, George Jackson and Attica Pro tools files from Prisons on Fire CD
James Baldwin on Angela Davis James Baldwin on Angela Davis
Call Number: KP 071Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProgram: Pacific of Program ServicesCollection: Angela Davis
Interview with James Baldwin on the issues surrounding Angela Davis' case. Baldwin explains Europeans' views on this case and the connection between the Civil Rights Movement to the larger international human struggle against colonialism. He shares his own opinions on America and its relationship to the world. The interview ends with Baldwin reading "An Open Letter to My Sister, Angela Y. Davis."
Defining Black Power - Part One Defining Black Power - Part One
Call Number: KP 108AFormat: Cass AProducers: KPFA ArchivesCollection: Black Power/Black Nation
Black voices: Defining Black Power: a sampler of famous speeches. Rosa Parks 6:41 (1955) James Baldwin 16:33 (5/17/1963) Bayard Rustin, Malcolm X 21:32 (Debate in early 1960s)
Baldwin and Malcolm X Baldwin and Malcolm X
Call Number: CV 002Format: Cass A & BCollection: Malcolm X
Debate between Malcolm X, James Baldwin, and Laverne McCummings. Subjects include the "Sit in" movement, NAACP and the student movement, and the meaning of intergration. Check CD 350 may be the same.
James Baldwin James Baldwin
Call Number: CV 003Format: Cass A & BCollection: Chuy Varela Collection
James Baldwin speaking about collective movements, what it means to be an American, early American history, the slave trade, and what it means to be an African American in the United States. Question and Answers from audience.
James Baldwin on Angela Davis James Baldwin on Angela Davis
Call Number: CD 582Format: CDProgram: Pacific of Program ServicesCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Interview with James Baldwin on the issues surrounding Angela Davis' case. Baldwin explains Europeans' views on this case and the connection between the Civil Rights Movement to the larger international human struggle against colonialism. He shares his own opinions on America and its relationship to the world. The interview ends with Baldwin reading "An Open Letter to My Sister, Angela Y. Davis."
James Baldwin James Baldwin
Call Number: CD 684Format: CDCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
James Baldwin speaking about collective movements, what it means to be an American, early American history, the slave trade, and what it means to be an African American in the United States. Question and Answers from audience.
James Baldwin and American Identity James Baldwin and American Identity
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Black Liberation
In this speech given in 1963 James Baldwin addresses the genocide and slave labor that is largely denied by the history of the 'formation' of the United States.
Black Liberation Part 1 Black Liberation Part 1
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Black Liberation
Sweet Honey In The Rock - "Give Your Hands to Struggle" James Baldwin - about his visit to a slave station near Dakar in Senegal. He expresses his pain as he tries to imagine how the slaves might have felt as they awaited the middle passage. How they were met with the gun and the bible when they arrived and how white America denies and even justifies this history Sweet Honey In The Rock continued Freedom medley - a mix of songs from the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960’s
Plea for Support in the Release of Eldridge Cleaver Plea for Support in the Release of Eldridge Cleaver
Publisher: International Committee to Release Eldridge CleaverFormat: CorrespondenceCollection: Cleaver, Eldridge
Letter to Elsa Knight Thompson asking for her support in effort to release Eldridge Cleaver; organization's "Bay Area Co-Chairmen" include James Baldwin, Ossie Davis, Dr. Carlton Goodlett.