The literature which exists concerning cardiovascular reactivity is limited in terms of its applicability to African American males' responses to such chronic stressors as racism. The present study set forth to study empirically the cognitive and physiological responsivity of young African American males to racially noxious stimuli. Given that African American males tend to have higher resting blood pressures, show greater cardiovascular reactiivity, and suffer the highest rate of essential hypertension, they were chosen as the target group for the present study. 45 African American male students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University were compared on a series of objective physiological and psychological measures in order to investigate the mediating impact of cognitive appraisal, anger expression, hostility, and masculine gender role stress upon cardiovascular reactivity. While none of the hypothesized relationships emerged at a level of statistical significance, a number of interesting trends emerged. For instance, as in other related research, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate approached significance in several relationships. Further, support was established for the use of continuous measurement of cardiovascular output. / M.S.