Freedom Archives Search Engine

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, specifcally AND/+, NOT/-, and OR operators. 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.

Anti-War

This collection primarily contains materials opposing the war in Vietnam. Extensive accounts from the May Day Pentagon Protests in 1967 are included as well as student and GI perspectives on the war. Also includes a collection on the case of Gordon Oehser, who attempted to claim conscientious objector status in opposition to serving in the Korean War.

Subcollections

Concord Campaign to Stop Arms Shipments to El Salvador
This collection contains materials related to the Nuremberg Actions Concord Campaign to stop arms shipments to El Salvador.
Gordon Oehser/Conscientious Objector
This collection contains materials related to the case of Gordon Oehser,who attempted to claim conscientious objector status in opposition to serving in the Korean War.
Oakland Induction Center
During the Vietnam War young male draftees would arrive at the Oakland Induction Center on Clay Street for processing and physical exams. Throughout this period, anti-war activists would conduct protests outside the Induction Center.