NPR

Scientists Work To Overcome Legacy Of Tuskegee Study, Henrietta Lacks

An influential Harlem church is trying to help the National Institutes of Health overcome reluctance by some African-Americans to participate in a medical study of 1 million diverse Americans.
Kolbi Brown (left), a program manager at Harlem Hospital, helps Karen Phillips sign up to receive more information about the "All of Us" medical research program, during a block party outside the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.

It's a Sunday morning at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, a famous African-American church in Harlem. The organist plays as hundreds of worshipers stream into the pews. The Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III steps to the pulpit.

"Now may we stand for our call to worship," says Butts, as he begins a powerful three-hour service filed with music, dancing, prayers, and preaching. "How good and pleasant it is when all of God's children get together."

Then, about an hour into the service, Butts does something he's never done before. "I would like to introduce the Precision Medicine Initiative," he says, referring to.

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