Shelton State Community College is part of a state system of public colleges. This system originated in the Alabama Trade School and Junior College Authority Act enacted by the state legislature in May 1963. The governing board for the institutions operating within this system is the Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees with the Chancellor serving as the chief executive officer.
Shelton State Community College was established by resolution of the Alabama State Board of Education on January 1, 1979. That resolution combined two existing institutions: Shelton State Technical College, established in 1952, and the Tuscaloosa branch campus of Brewer State Junior College, an institution whose main campus was located in Fayette, Alabama. The Tuscaloosa branch campus of Brewer State had been in operation since 1972.