The Jackson Heart Study (JHS), initiated in 1998, is a longitudinal investigation of genetic and environmental risk factors associated with the disproportionate burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in African-Americans. In addition, the JHS performs a variety of community education and outreach activities to promote healthy lifestyles and reduce disease risk burden. It also conducts college undergraduate and graduate-level training programs and high school science and math enrichment programs to prepare and encourage underrepresented minority students to pursue biomedical careers. (www.jacksonheartstudy.org/). The JHS represents an expansion of the Jackson Field Center of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study (www2.cscc.unc.edu/aric/), to broaden data collection in an African- American population and to increase access to and participation of African American populations and scientists in biomedical research and professions. The study recruited 5306 African-American residents, including 3,732 residents also enrolled in ARIC, living in the Jackson, MS, metropolitan area of Hinds, Madison, and Rankin Counties. Enrolled JHS participants, initially aged 20 - 90 years, received three back-to-back examinations (Exam 1, 2000-04; Exam 2, 2005-08; and Exam 3, 2009-13) and have been contacted annually. Findings on the rich set of data on physical, behavioral, genetic, and psychosocial factors have been presented in over 345 publications as of the end of 2016. Participant exams have produced extensive longitudinal data on traditional and putative CVD risk factors, socioeconomic and sociocultural factors, and biochemical analytes; and measures of subclinical disease from echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT) scans of the heart, aorta, and abdomen. Stored biological samples have been assayed for putative biochemical risk factors and stored for future research. DNA has been extracted and lymphocytes cryopreserved for study of candidate genes, genome-wide scanning, expression, and other –omics investigations. The study included a nested component of 428 families with mean family size of 5 at baseline; today 331 families with at least 1 living member still actively participate. Participation of the surviving cohort has been high: 80% (N=4205) and 72% (N=3820) at each of the two respective follow-up examinations. Today the average cohort age is 68 years. Since baseline, cohort members have also been contacted every 12 months to obtain information on vital status, current residence, major illness or injury, and hospitalizations occurring between contacts to identify incident clinical CVD events of interest. Due to JHS’ shared cohort membership with ARIC, the two studies cooperate with each other on events validation.