Special collections include: Harry Bridges Deportation case, Chicano and Black Liberation, Civil Rights Congress records, Morris Kominsky files, Smith Act Case records, and many others.
The roots of the Library go back to the 1930s, when Los Angeles activist Emil Freed began collecting labor and Left literature. Later, in the politically repressive 1950s, the collection mushroomed when Freed began rescuing materials that fearful activists were consigning to their backyard incinerators.
After filling numerous with his hoard, he opened SCL in 1963 in a downtown storefront. In 1973, he moved the Library to its permanent home, a large commercial building in South Central Los Angeles.