In response to the flood of interest in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) following the recent controversy over "Ebonics," this book brings together sixteen essays on the subject by a leading expert in the field, one who has been researching and writing on it for a quarter of a century. Rickford's essays cover the three central areas in which questions continue to come in from teachers, students, linguists, the news media, and interested members of the public: What are the features of AAVE/Ebonics and how is it used? What is its evolution and where is it headed? What are its educational implications? The answers to these questions are sometimes matters of controversy even within linguistics, the scientific study of language, but Rickford's essays - written between 1975 and 1998 - provide an informed commentary on them based on systematic research rather than the opinionated misinformation that dominated media commentary on Ebonics.