In response to his beliefs about slavery, President Lincoln was killed by James Earl Booth. Additionally, hate crimes have skyrocketed in the South with the rise of White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan. During the period when Republicans controlled Southern state governments, groups of Southern whites organized secret societies to intimidate black and white reformers. The Ku Klux Klan was an “invisible empire” that burned black-owned buildings and whipped and killed free men to prevent them from exercising their right to vote. Additionally, lynchings became widespread in the South and were an effective way to discourage African Americans from voting. Several policies such as Jim Crow laws, the grandfather clause, poll taxes, and literacy tests were implemented in the South as a way to prevent any political activity run by African Americans. The despicable acts of the Ku Klux Klan and White Supremists extended to the burning of freedmen's homes and, as a result, were considered worse than slavery