Northeast is one of the twelve junior colleges created by the State Legislature during the administration of Governor George C. Wallace. Act No. 93, approved May 3, 1963, authorized the College. Act No. 94 approved May 3, 1963, vested in the State Board of Education the authority and responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the community colleges. On May 7, Act No. 2015-125 changed the governance to the Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees.
Many individuals and organizations were instrumental in locating the College on the Jackson-DeKalb County line. The Jackson County Board of Revenue and the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners donated a sixty-acre site for the College. The original site consisted of thirty acres in Jackson County and thirty acres in DeKalb County. An additional 35 acres were purchased in February of 1969, 5.54 acres purchased in 1982, 2.7 acres purchased in 1991, 10 acres purchased and 1-7/10 acres donated in 1996, and approximately 3 acres added in 2009.
The College began operation on the quarter system (fall, winter, spring, and summer). The first classes began September 30, 1965, with 380 freshmen. In the Fall of 1998, Northeast changed to the semester system (fall, spring and summer).
In May, 1992, the Alabama State Board of Education renamed the College Northeast Alabama State Community College. The Chancellor of the Alabama Community College System approved the change in the name of the College to Northeast Alabama Community College in 1996.