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.
Welcome to the Freedom Archives' Digital Search Engine.The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings which date from the late-1960s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements. We are also in the process of scanning and uploading thousands of historical documents which enrich our media holdings. Our collection includes weekly news, poetry, music programs; in-depth interviews and reports on social and cultural issues; numerous voices from behind prison walls; diverse activists; and pamphlets, journals and other materials from many radical organizations and movements.

Forced Sterilization

This collection contains materials focusing on the forced sterilization of women and efforts to resist this practice. Forced sterilizations have been used for hundreds of years as a method to exercise control over women and their bodies and continue to be used to attack women, their dignity and their legal and reproductive rights.

In addition to our archival holdings, the Freedom Archives has published a curriculum that one can use to inform their communities and classrooms about the historical and contemporary practice of forced sterilization. We have created this curriculum in order to provide historical context for forced sterilization, illuminate the voices of those directly affected by forced sterilization, and generate community discussion and activism around women’s liberation and reproductive justice. This curriculum is highly flexible and can be used in a variety of educational settings. We suggest a number of options that help develop different skill sets, such as critical thinking, active reading, active listening and expository or persuasive essay writing, all with the intention of deepening understanding of this recent history and its lessons. It can be downloaded for free by following the links below.

http://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC46_scans/46.SterilizationCurriculum.Nov2016.pdf

http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC46_scans/46.SterilizationResourcesComplete.pdf

Documents

Gov't Network Sterilizes Workers Gov't Network Sterilizes Workers
Publisher: Committee for Puerto Rican DecolonizationFormat: ArticleCollection: Forced Sterilization
A continuation of an article about the history of mass sterilization in Puerto Rico but focuses on the problems with the current health system and includes the results of a 1968 study on sterilzation.
Stop Forced Sterilization Now!/ Alto A Esterilizacion Forzada Stop Forced Sterilization Now!/ Alto A Esterilizacion Forzada
Publisher: The Committee to Stop Forced SterilizationFormat: MonographCollection: Forced Sterilization
Bilingual Monograph
35% Puerto Rican Women Sterilized 35% Puerto Rican Women Sterilized
Publisher: Committee for Puerto Rican DecolonizationYear: 1974Volume Number: Vol. 2-5Format: ArticleCollection: Forced Sterilization
An article from the Committee for Puerto Rican Decolonization in New York exposing the massive sterilization program carried out by the U.S. Government and the Rockefeller Foundation in response to the "population problem" in Puerto Rico that was seen as responsible for widespread unemployment.
No Forced Sterilization No Forced Sterilization
Format: FlyerCollection: Forced Sterilization
Flyer
Emigration and Sterilization in Puerto Rico Emigration and Sterilization in Puerto Rico
Author: Bonnie MassPublisher: Latin America Working GroupYear: 1976Format: ExcerptCollection: Forced Sterilization
From Population target : the political economy of population control in Latin America
Sterilization Abuse of Women: the Facts Sterilization Abuse of Women: the Facts
Publisher: Health/PAC BulletinYear: 1975Volume Number: No. 62 January-FebruaryFormat: PamphletCollection: Forced Sterilization
Fact sheet on the sterilization of women of color.
Native American Growing Fight against Sterilizations of Women Native American Growing Fight against Sterilizations of Women
Author: Andrea CarmenPublisher: Akwesasne NotesVolume Number: Late WinterFormat: ArticleCollection: Forced Sterilization
Article discussing evidence of the genocidal campaign of sterilizations that the US government is carrying out against Native peoples.
Women in the Colonial Society: Massive Sterilization Women in the Colonial Society: Massive Sterilization
Author: Margarita MergalFormat: ExcerptCollection: Forced Sterilization
This excerpt is about massive sterilization and the myth of overpopulation. Includes information on sterilization as part of the the colonial project in Puerto Rico.