Coolie

A term at the time for an unskilled Chinese laborer. While this was far from the worst racist term applied to Chinese people, it did carry an unmistakably racist tone. Don't use it.

First Transcontinental Railroad

A transcontinental railroad is a railroad that crosses an entire continent. Simple, right? The First Transcontinental Railroad was built across the United States in the 1860s using a lot of Chinese labor. Another reason for people to emigrate from China. More work.

Gold Rush

After gold was discovered in California in 1848, it became a priority to get that stuff out of there. This increased a demand for labor, which prompted a lot of people to emigrate from China.

Habeas corpus

It's Latin, so you know it's a legal term. You're right, and that Latin means (kind of) "produce the body." A writ of habeas corpus is used to fight unlawful imprisonment, and it was how the Chinese laborers fought against the Chinese Exclusion Act. The later Geary Act took away their right to habeas corpus, so it's clear it was working.

Page Act

An earlier law that prohibited immigration from forced labor or prostitutes. That one was kind of an anti-slavery measure.

Supreme Order of Caucasians

Doesn't this sound like a low-rent super villain group? Like someone Iron Man ends up fighting in the seventh movie because the writers ran out of ideas a long time ago? They were a California-based anti-Chinese group founded in 1876. So they were just regular villains. Nothing super about them.

Undesirables

A blanket and pretty insulting term for a class of people that others might find "undesirable" to live near. At the time, this often meant Chinese. Now, it probably means clowns, people who like fish on pizza, or members of Nickelback.

Workingman's Party

A labor organization/political party in the 1870s, their slogan was "The Chinese must go!" That's...that's not subtle, guys.

In a bit of weirdness, this populist group has absolutely no relation to the Workingman's Party of the United States, which was a fairly weak socialist group founded in 1876.