African American vs Afro-American

African American and Afro-American both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
African American	Yes	No	No	No
Afro-American	Yes	Yes	No	No

As nouns, African American and Afro-American are synonyms defined as:

African American and Afro-American: an American whose ancestors were born in Africa

Other synonyms of African American include Black American.

African American (noun)	Afro-American (noun)
an American whose ancestors were born in Africa	an American whose ancestors were born in Africa

African American (adjective)	Afro-American (adjective)
	pertaining to or characteristic of Americans of African ancestry