This is a prospective study of the environmental and genetic factors that influence the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in African American men and women. The cohort is an expansion of the Jackson, Mississippi site of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and is a partnership among two minority institutions (Jackson State University and Tougaloo College), one majority institution in Jackson, Mississippi (the University of Mississippi Medical Center), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD), and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).