(Originally broadcast on October 30, 2020) African American participation in COVID-19 vaccine trials is critically low despite the pandemic's disproportionate impact on Black communities. From the Tuskegee Study to Henrietta Lacks, centuries of anti-black racism and discrimination in American healthcare have led to chronic distrust of medical research among African Americans. Tom’s guest is Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of University of Maryland Baltimore County, and a longtime civil rights activist. He and his wife, Jacqueline, have enrolled in a Phase 3 COVID 19 clinical trial at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and they are vocal proponents of more African American participation in the research process.