Labov's contributions to the study of African American Vernacular English: Pursuing linguistic and social equity

Even before Labov's celebrated study of the Lower East Side (The Social Stratification of English in New York City) was published in 1966, he had begun research on African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in Harlem. His work there initiated a life-long study of the structural features, verbal artistry and language use of the African American speech community. It took him to other cities (e.g. Philadelphia) and states (e.g. California, Georgia, South Carolina), and led him to grapple with questions about how linguistics could be used to improve the teaching of reading to speakers of vernacular Englishes and to enhance the life chances of people of color. In this article, I review Labov's contributions to each of these issues, and to diachronic issues about the development of AAVE. Overall, this research considerably enriched his overall contribution to theoretical, methodological and applied aspects of sociolinguistics and the study of linguistic variation and change.