Political terrorism is where an extremist of a certain political ideology uses violence to instil fear in a group to effect change. We see examples like this in the USA from domestic terror attacks like the Oklahoma City Bombing, Uni Bomber, and Eco-terrorists.

When talking about the KKK, America’s first major terror group, it’s hard to categorize it because it is multiple forms of terrorism. They used violence and threat of violence to effect change in the minds of both the enslaved and whites in the area. But it was political, state, and state sponsored terror. Many don’t understand the history that KKK members were often times slave patrol, (later) police officers, mayors, city council, senators, judges, governors, doctors, lawyers, military, and other high-profile people. The KKK was never just a group of poor racist Southerners, they had material, political, and state support. Today of course, they have devolved into an embarrassing blight on America, but what many don’t know is that many police officers in the south are still being exposed as members and often times lose their jobs.