PRIMARY cancer of the skin is one of the most common forms of malignant tumor in the white race. Contrariwise, the disease appears to be comparatively rare in Negroes.1-4 Markus,5 in a study of skin cancer in Dallas, Tex., found the disease to be 27 times more common in white than in Negro men. Others have reported that only about 2 per cent of skin cancers occur in Negroes. The present study was undertaken in an effort to examine the validity of the above incidence figures and, in addition, to discover any important differences in the disease in Negroes as compared to whites. During the period 1947 through June, 1960, there were 31 cases of cancer of the skin in Negroes seen in the Tumor Clinic and Surgical Department of Freedmen's Hospital. This comprises 1.2 per cent of the malignant tumors seen in Negroes for this period.