Increasing access to health promotion interventions is paramount in reducing the impact of health disparities for African American women. The lack of enrollment of African American populations has been attributed to reasons such as ineligibility based upon study criteria, no-show appointments prior to randomization, and attrition after randomization (2008). The purpose of the current study was to gain a better understanding of methods of recruitment that could increase the number of eligible participants, and examine the effects of recruitment strategies and pretreatment psychosocial factors in an exercise and fruit and vegetable promotion study. Of the 646 African American women recruited, 60% (196) of those recruited by active methods, and 62.7% (200) of those recruited by passive methods went on to be screened for the study, suggesting no difference for recruitment strategy on study inclusion. However, actively recruited participants (56.6%) were more likely than passively recruited participants (43.4%) to be retained in the study at Session 1. Psychosocial predictors of retention at Time 2 included Age, Education, and the Exploration subscale of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, while Exercise Self Efficacy (ESES) and Health Literacy (3Q-HL) did not contribute to differences in retention. Results are discussed in relation to future recruitment strategies that might increase participation rates of minority populations.