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[[File:booth.jpg|thumbnail|250px|Actor and Assassin, John Wilkes Booth.]]

Although it was intended to be a time of healing and progress, Reconstruction in America became a violent endeavor. The founding of the Ku Klux Klan in 1866, coupled with individual and riotous acts of violence were an extension of the first brutal act of the era; the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln as President of the United States, held none of Lincoln’s compassion or his innate ability to forgive. His quest to punish the southern states for their rebellion against the Union fanned the flames of vengeance. The hatred felt by defeated Confederates and the inevitable violence that stemmed from that hate was omnipresent in the South. Had Lincoln survived to oversee Reconstruction; however, the degree to which the killing and destruction of innocent lives may have been lessened. It can therefore be concluded that Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was largely responsible for the horrifically violent and inept attempt at Reconstruction.

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