Search Help

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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
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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.

George Jackson

George Jackson was arrested in 1957 for stealing $70 from a gas station and was sentenced to 1 year to life. Jackson ended up being incarcerated for 14 years until he was murdered by prison guards inside San Quentin Prison in 1971. During his 14 years of imprisonment, Jackson became of the seminal figures and thinkers of Black Power and the Black Liberation Movement.

Documents

Black Panther Garage Class Recordings Black Panther Garage Class Recordings
Date: 9/8/1971Call Number: PM 101Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: George Jackson
Camera Roll 17: Bobby Seale talking to kids in a garage class about George Jackson. Black Panther Party kids singing about George Jackson and other Black Panther Party songs.
Black Panther Party Political Education on George Jackson Black Panther Party Political Education on George Jackson
Date: 9/8/1971Call Number: PM 108Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsCollection: George Jackson
Bobby Seale preparing to teach in a garage to Panther kids, asking them what they know about George Jackson, where and how long he was incarcerated. Not much material.
Garage school with Black Panther Party kids Garage school with Black Panther Party kids
Call Number: PM 121Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: BBC - Granada TVCollection: George Jackson
Black Panther Party kids talking about George Jackson. Kids say that they like Bobby Seale and his classes, learning how to read and write and about George Jackson. Class with a Black Panther Party sister asking kids about political prisoners. Kids talk about separation of political prisoners, especially Black Panther Party members from the rest of the prison population. Difficulty of visiting and corresponding with political prisoners inside. Kids talk about dehumanizing conditions of prisons and the work that prisoners are forced to do.