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

David Ilchert Interview - INS David Ilchert Interview - INS
Date: 9/30/1992Call Number: CV 195AFormat: Cass AProducers: Chuy VarelaProgram: KPFACollection: Chuy Varela Collection
INS director speaks about immigration law, employers duties to verify the employment eligibility of workers The day laborers in San Rafael are also discussed.
San Rafael Day Laborers San Rafael Day Laborers
Date: 8/18/1992Call Number: CV 196AFormat: Cass AProducers: Chuy VarelaCollection: Chuy Varela Collection
Latino day laborers in San Rafael speak as they stand on street corners looking for work. About their experiences coming to and working in the US, encounters with the INS. Also interviewed are two shopkeepers in the area.
Canal Community Alliance Canal Community Alliance
Date: 8/18/1992Call Number: CV 196BFormat: Cass BProducers: Chuy VarelaCollection: Chuy Varela Collection
Tom Wilson and Melissa Martin from the Canal Community Alliance speak about the San Rafael day laborers and the Canal district of San Rafael. They outline city plans to set up a job center for the day laborers, INS raids, racism in the neighborhood.