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

Herman Bell interview (all 3 tapes) Herman Bell interview (all 3 tapes)
Call Number: V 077Format: VHSProducers: John O’ReillyCollection: New York 3
Compilation of Videos 74-76 (see those descriptions)
Police Accountability Police Accountability
Date: 4/16/1993Call Number: PM 343Format: Cass A & BProducers: KPFAProgram: BrainstormCollection: Political Prisoner Periodicals
Features Babara Attard, then senior investigator with San Francisco's Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC), Suzanne Pegas, co-founder of Berkeley's Copwatch, and Carmen Johnson, political activist and board member of the MLK Housing Cooperative in San Francisco. They discuss the question of "How to police the police", the source of racist police policies, and where accountability resides in the police structure. Jerome Skolnick, affiliate of UC Berkeley School of Law and author of "Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force" also joins the discussion. He discusses "siege mentality" of the police, the code of silence in police departments, and the need for cops to relate to their communities.
Rodney King Demonstration and Dyke Zap National Coming Out Day Rodney King Demonstration and Dyke Zap National Coming Out Day
Date: 4/17/1993Call Number: V 568Format: Hi-8Producers: Lisa RudmanCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
Documents the heavy police presence at a demonstration in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco against the Rodney King verdict. dyke zap at Fruitvale BART station by Women Against Imperialism who agitate and raise awareness about lesbian parenting in response to high profile cases across US of lesbian parents losing custody of their children.
Karen Norman Defense document packet Karen Norman Defense document packet
Format: CompilationCollection: Violence Against Women
Reproduction of original articles
Black Flag: Organ of the Anarchist Black Cross Black Flag: Organ of the Anarchist Black Cross
Publisher: Black Flag GroupYear: 1979Volume Number: Vol. 5-8Format: PeriodicalCollection: Black Flag
Contains a photo spread by artist Eul
Black Flag: Organ of the Anarchist Black Cross Black Flag: Organ of the Anarchist Black Cross
Publisher: Black Flag GroupYear: 1977Volume Number: Vol. 4-14Format: PeriodicalCollection: Black Flag
Features article about the current state of the Murray Trials and the release of Ronan Stenson. Also, includes an article about the Hull prisoners demonstration.