Founded in 2013 by Beth Cleary and Peter Rachleff,[1] it has occupied the Arlington Hills Carnegie library building since leasing it from the city of Saint Paul in 2014.

[5] The mission of the East Side Freedom Library is "to mobilize community knowledge for solidarity, advocate for justice and work toward equity for all".

[6] The library's resources and activities serve to provide historical context for the communities of Saint Paul's East Side neighborhood, create connections among them, and encourage celebration of the area's diverse cultures.

[2] The library's non-circulating collection of over 20,000 books and other items[9] focuses on the regional histories of labor, African-Americans, immigration,[2] and social movements.

[11] This archive was established in 1999 by Marlin L. Heise, Yuepheng L. Xiong, Tzianeng Vang, and others,[11] and is one of the largest collections of books, documents, and material objects related to Hmong culture and history.