The Archie Brown collection includes items from the 1930s and 1960s, but the majority of materials date from the 1970s, and document Brown's active role in the ILWU, the Communist Party, and a host of progressive organizations. The many pamphlets and broadsides testify to his commitment to social justice and also give an idea about the issues of importance to San Francisco leftists in the 1970s. Other activities of which there is less documentation include economic issues, such as the Coalition to Fight the High Cost of Living. He also supported struggles of other unions and their strikes.

Of special interest in the collection are letters Brown received after the movie "Operation Abolition" was shown nationwide, a documentary about the fight to abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee; and materials related to U.S. labor union activities to support Chilean workers and the fight to free Angela Davis. The collection also includes two courtroom transcripts, of the Grand Jury hearing of October 1935, and murder trial, December 1935, defendants: Shipscalers F. Jimenez, J. Cavales, A. Brown and N. Villi; photocopies of letters Archie wrote to his wife to his wife Esther (Hon) Brown while he was a member of the Spanish Civil War Abraham Lincoln Brigade (originals are held by Brandeis University in the Archie Brown Collection); print materials pertaining to the San Francisco waterfront, including the Waterfront Worker, May 1934¬March 1936; materials on Archie Brown's political campaigns for SF supervisor, California governor (write-in candidate) and congressman; and photographs of Archie Brown during 1961 trial challenging the Communist Control Act (successor act to Taft-Hartley Section 9) and at HUAC hearings in California, 1960.