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.

Black Liberation

The Black Liberation movement grew out of the civil rights movement and was made up of many militant organizations dedicated to freedom for African-Americans, such as the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army, and the Republic of New Africa. The collection includes extensive files on, but is not limited to, these three organizations, with additional materials on Pan-African organizations, the revolutionary prison movement, and other diverse publications of many different organizations and individuals, including pamphlets, ephemera, periodicals, newspapers, theoretical writings, and poetry.

Documents

Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton Speaks at University of Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton Speaks at University of Chicago
Collection: Fred Hampton Jr.
Taken from speech at University of Chicago, March 1969. Fred Hampton about the U.S. prison system and the fight for equal rights among people of color
George Jackson Intro George Jackson Intro
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesFormat: mp3Collection: George Jackson
George Jackson and his mother Georgia Jackson, with a Bay Area newscast on the assassination of George Jackson, prison revolutionary and author. Jackson was killed on August 21, 1971 at San Quintin, a year after his younger brother Johnathan Jackson was killed during the Marin County Courthouse Rebellion.
Maya Angelou reads "Harriet Tubman" Maya Angelou reads "Harriet Tubman"
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Black Liberation
Excerpt of Maya Angelou reading "Harriet Tubman" by Margaret Walker at at 1972 benefit for Angela Davis.
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
Black Liberation Part 2 Black Liberation Part 2
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Black Power/Black Nation
Malcolm X on Black Nationalism as a response to US Colonialism; Assata Shakur reads her poem Carry It On tracing the history of Black resistance to white supremacy
Growing up in the Black Nation Growing up in the Black Nation
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesProgram: COINTELPRO 101Collection: Geronimo Pratt
Geronimo Ji Jaga reflects on how growing up in the Black Nation among enemy forces gave him a deep respect for defenders of the community.
I'm in it to win! I'm in it to win!
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Geronimo Pratt
Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt asserts his mission as a revolutionary activist.
Keep on Pushin' Keep on Pushin'
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesProgram: COINTELPRO 101Collection: Geronimo Pratt
Words of encouragement from Geronimo Ji Jaga.
Geronimo Ji Jaga on Black Liberation Geronimo Ji Jaga on Black Liberation
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Geronimo Pratt
Geronimo Ji Jaga explains the emergence of the Black Panther party as a small piece of the Black Liberation movement.