In response to his beliefs on slavery, President Lincoln was shot by James Earl Booth. Additionally, hate crimes 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 or 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 murdered free men to prevent them from exercising their right to vote. Additionally, lynchings became commonplace in the South and were an effective means of dissuading African Americans from voting. Several policies such as Jim Crow laws, grandfathering, poll taxes, and literacy tests were implemented in the South in order to prevent political activity by African Americans. The dastardly acts of the Ku Klux Klan and white supremists went so far as to burn down the homes of freedmen and, therefore, were considered worse than slavery.