There was a lot of discussion about what we now call "racism" in the late 1800s and early 1900s but I agree with others that the term "racism" does not seem to have been used yet. It also does not show up in searches of the Making of America site at the Univ. of Michigan. Here are a few examples of the use of "race prejudice," "race pride," and "lynching spirit" I found in documents in my Anti- Imperialism in the U.S. web: "When, right here at home, the laws are ignored and men are lynched, almost daily, because of race prejudice, he must be an optimist indeed who believes that Americans will be less prejudiced 3,000 miles away from home.... Maybe there is some alchemy in the Pacific breezes which will neutralize the race pride for which we have become infamous; but if I were a Filipino I should not care to put faith in it." --Herbert S. Bigelow, "Jose Rizal, Filipino Patriot" (1899) "I cannot believe I am mistaken in supposing that the lynching spirit has shown itself conspicuously bold and self-congratulatory in the northern and western as well as in the southern states of the union, since it became possible for the hoarse and brutal muse of Rudyard Kipling to sing the nation's policy and purpose [in "The White Man's Burden"]." -- Quincy Ewing, "An Effect of the Conquest of the Philippines" (1901) "The spirit which slaughters brown men in Jolo is the spirit which lynches black men in the South. When such crimes go unpunished, far more when the men who commit them are praised and rewarded, the youth of the country is taught an evil lesson. Race prejudice is strengthened and the love of justice, the corner- stone of free institutions, is weakened." --Moorfield Storey, "The Moro Massacre" (1906). That was the same Moro Massacre that Twain commented upon in his autobiography. Storey was president of the Anti-Imperialist League in 1906 and four years later became the first president of the NAACP. Bigelow and Ewing were also among the country's most outspoken opponents of "racism" during that period. Jim Zwick