He was one of the early pioneers in the study of urban African American English through his work in Detroit in 1969.
He was an active participant in the 1996 debate surrounding the Oakland Ebonics controversy, supporting the legitimacy of African American English as a systematic language system.
[6] He attended and graduated from Olney High School,[7] where he played baseball, basketball, and football.
[13] Through the Language and Life Project, Wolfram has been involved in the production of television and film documentaries about dialect diversity (often in collaboration with Neal Hutcheson), as well as the construction of museum exhibits, the publication of popular books, and the development of dialect awareness curricula for schools and the general public.
[16] In 2015, PBS selected the documentary for national distribution, making it available for broadcast at member stations in 2016.
[19] Talking Black in America (2019) chronicles the history and impact of African American English.
[19] Wolfram has co-authored and co-edited multiple books written for the general public, including: Hoi Toide on the Sound Soide: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue (1997 UNC Press), co-authored with Natalie Schilling; American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast (Wiley 2005), co-edited with Ben Ward; Talkin' Tar Heel: How our Voices Tell the Story of North Carolina (2014 UNC Press), co-authored with Jeffrey Reaser; and The Five-Minute Linguist: Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages, 3rd Edition (Equinox 2019).
[22][23] The book was written for the general audience, with the goal of "shar[ing] knowledge and respect for the languages and dialects in North Carolina in a readable, audible, and visual format accessible to the public.