The research and archive artifacts presented here are by no means a perfect representation of the Now, Mr. Lincoln? Campaign, and we must always be cautious when we attempt to describe history from our current position in the present. We maintain however that these artifacts may serve as useful tools for learning about the attitudes, economic realities and history of the campaign, as long as there is also recognition that many critical voices are missing from the archive. There are still several important questions left to be answered. One question in particular weighed heavily on us: Can we consider the campaign a success by any reasonable measure if the majority of the businesses it funded went out of business within a year and a half? What does this say about the influence of the American Dream and its power to blind us to the harsh realities of institutionalized racial inequity, especially as it affects entrepreneurs?

There is still much work to be done uncovering the voices that are not represented in the archive, and we imagine this work will come in the form of interviews with those who were present and involved in the campaign, as well as with the discovery of other materials, a task we now leave in the capable hands of future Honors 401 classes.