"African American English" (="AAE") is one name for a collection of varieties (ways of speaking) characteristically used by African Slave Descendants in North America. Over the years a number of names have been used, and a number of different varieties or dialects have been the focus of both linguistic and general public attention. Some of the more common terms include "Black English", "Ebonics", "Black Vernacular English" (="BEV"), and "African American Vernacular English" (="AAVE").
In an earlier period (mid/late 1960s), the name “Negro Non-standard English” was often used. It’s obvious that the terms for this language variety change more or less in step with terms of self-identification for the people who speak it. Thus, the term “Negro” gave way in popular (and eventually out-group) usage to the term “Black”, which was followed by “African American” (though as Geneva Smitherman points out, this term is actually much older).
In: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/AAVE.html
