College students are a very vulnerable group to experience stress, the latter of which is related to a variety of outcomes, such as health and academic performance. However, there is a dearth of research examining African American college students and stress. Further, fewer studies have compared stress for students attending predominately white institutions to those attending historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). We first examined the relationships between self-esteem, social support, school racial composition, age and gender on students' stress using the Student Stress Survey. A non-probability sample (N = 344) of predominantly African American students was collected at a Historically Black College & University (HBCU) while 165 students comprised the non-probability sample of white students from a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). We found that the top five reported sources of stress were: Death of a family member (Intrapersonal Stress) 82%; low grades (Academic Stress) 69%; time management (Academic Stress) 61%; boyfriend/girlfriend problems (Interpersonal Stress) 57%; and missed classes (Academic Stress) 55%. In addition, we found significant correlations between self-esteem, social support and stress for all students except African Americans at PWIs. The study points out the need for colleges and universities to develop stress intervention programs that address stress specifically based on race and school racial composition. Implications and suggestions for further research among African American college students will be discussed. (Contains 4 tables.)