An eight-foot bronze statue of John Henry stands in the park above Big Bend Tunnel near Tulka, West Virginia. Ex-slave railroad workers, including Henry, built Big Bend ca. 1870s. According to a legend, he engaged in a rock-drilling competition against the tunnel company's steam drill. “He won, but died of exhaustion, his life cut short by his own superhuman effort” (http://sandbox.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/johnhenry/index.html). John Henryism, a term coined by epidemiologist Sherman A. James, negatively affects African Americans’ health. Their heroic efforts to cope with stressors of racial prejudice and discrimination contribute to high death rates from hypertension and cardiovascular disease, especially for African American men.