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.

Independent Collections

These collections were produced by independent journalists. Many of these recordings make up the bulk of the original collection of the Freedom Archives.

Subcollections

Documents

The Kalantari Case The Kalantari Case
Date: 1/1/1968Call Number: CE 385Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Colin EdwardsCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
Colin Edwards interviews ACLU attorney Carliner, San Francisco District Director of Naturalization and Nationalization, Mr. Fullilove, and Mr. Kalantari, in Spring 1968. Kalantari is to be deported back to Iran for failure to obtain a valid student visa. He was the president of the Iranian Student Association at San Francisco State University and participated in multiple anti-Shah demonstrations. The Iranian embassy refused to renew his passport, and the Office of Immigration and Naturalization denied his request to renew his student visa. They claim the decision is unrelated to Kalantari's political activity. If he returns to Iran he would be persecuted, possibly executed. Mr. Carliner was authorized to collect evidence in Iran to assess possible persecution if Kalantari returns. Carliner explained that no US government body will admit that Iran persecutes their own people since they are allies.