The present study examined the role of distress tolerance (DT) and race in relation to cigarette smoking. For this study, between 2008 and 2010, 153 women (62.1% White, 37.9% African American) from the Washington, DC metropolitan area completed a computerized behavioral DT task and self-reported smoking history. Results suggest that low DT (OR = .23, p = .03) and the interaction between DT and race (OR = 4.58, p = .05) were significantly related to greater odds of being a smoker, such that African American women, but not White women, with low DT were at increased risk for being a lifetime smoker.