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

San Quentin guard discussing race relations and racism within prison San Quentin guard discussing race relations and racism within prison
Call Number: PM 107Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: Political Prisoner Periodicals
Track 1: Lots of sync/wild sound. Interview with San Quentin guard. Describes Mexicans have problems in the prisons because of the language barrier. Admits his prejudice - “I don’t like rice and beans”. Guard says that inmates are not treated by race but by record. Admits that there are more people of color in adjustment center because of barriers on the outside and people who don’t have access to English language can’t compete with people who have resources. Therefore “they have to steal to get something to eat”. Track 2: Tour of prison museum and can hear descriptions of various weapons and makeshift weapons used by past inmates.
Interview with a Soledad prison guards Interview with a Soledad prison guards
Call Number: PM 117Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: George Jackson
Sound Roll 2 of George Jackson series. Noisy background noise but can still make out interview. Soledad prison guards talking about George. Describes George as a fairly good inmate on a day by day basis to get along with. He says that none of the guards went along with George’s philosophy. Talking about black convicts and regulations about length of hairdos/afro wigs so as to not be able to hide weapons. Disputes a SF Chronicle newspaper report and discusses that inmates can hide weapons anywhere or smuggle anything into prisons. Tells a story about an who got a hook stuck on his esophagus trying to fish heroine out of his stomach.
Report of George Jackson’s death. Report of George Jackson’s death.
Date: 9/14/1971Call Number: PM 122Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: George Jackson
Only a few minutes long. Report of George Jackson’s death. Several takes of man trying to give details of George’s murder. Prison administration would have one believe that George’s death was justified due to an attempted escape over a 20 foot wall after his attorney supposedly smuggled in a weapon, which George allegedly hid in his hair.
Middle East Q&A Middle East Q&A
Date: 2/2/1991Call Number: KP 385AFormat: Cass ACollection: General materials
Q&A on the Gulf War and situation in the Middle East.
The Weaponry of the NLF The Weaponry of the NLF
Call Number: CE 577Format: 1/4 3 3/4 ipsCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
About the rise in intelligence regarding the National Liberation Front’s weaponry and the threat it poses to US military troops. The “first class” weapons are found to be imported from Russia, China and Japan.
Israel 's Arms Exports: Proxy Merchant for the U.S. Israel 's Arms Exports: Proxy Merchant for the U.S.
Author: Eric HooglundPublisher: American-Arab Anti-Discrimination CommitteeFormat: MonographCollection: US and British Foreign Policy on Palestine
ADC Background Paper #8