The issues related to recruiting African American psychiatric inpatients are discussed in the context of a study on the influence of ethnicity on psychiatric diagnosis. Psychiatric residents who are African American and those from other ethnic minority groups interviewed 959 Black and White inpatients in an urban psychiatric hospital. Despite the obstacles cited in the literature about recruiting and retaining African Americas for research, 78% of this sample were African American. In addition, interview completion and refusal rates did not differ by patient ethnicity. Results suggest that matching interviewer and patient ethnicity did not influence African Americans' likelihood of completing or refusing an interview. The article summarizes a number of guidelines that others may find useful in conducting clinical research with African Americans ranging from the formation of academic-public liaisons to interviewer training.