
In 1980, arts scholars Hank Willett and Brenda McCallum joined with a number of academics and folklorists from across the state to establish the AFA. In 1988, a group of people interested in creating a state folk festival joined the AFA and broadened its scope. During the succeeding five years, members of the AFA did fieldwork to produce the festival, to locate craftspeople and musicians to participate, and to solicit funds. The resulting Alabama Folklife Festival was held for two successive years in Birmingham as part of City Stages, a large outdoor festival, and for the next three years was held in Montgomery's Old Alabama Town.

In 2000, the AFA entered into a partnership with ASCA that provided funding for a part-time executive director, Joyce Cauthen, who along with a seven-member board of directors, developed a more public face for AFA. A website, launched that same year, now helps AFA achieve its mission of promoting knowledge and appreciation of Alabama folklife and makes its products and services available to Alabamians and people around the world. AFA continues to sponsor projects, such as a book and CD set entitled Judge Jackson and the Colored Sacred Harp, by Joe Dan Boyd, and Wiregrass Note, a CD of African American Sacred Harp singing.

In an effort to teach others to document and present Alabama traditions, the AFA sponsors the bi-yearly Alabama Community Scholars Institute, an intensive summer program that teaches interviewing techniques, photography, sound and video recording, grant-seeking, and other folklife fieldwork skills.
Additional Resources
Browne, Ray B. Popular Beliefs and Practices from Alabama. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1958.
Additional Resources
Browne, Ray B. Popular Beliefs and Practices from Alabama. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1958.
Foster, C. William. A Sense of Place: The Folk Heritage of North Alabama. Troy, Ala.: State University Press, 1978.
Martin, Stephen H., ed. Alabama Folklife: Collected Essays. Birmingham: Alabama Folklife Association, 1989.
Tartt, Ruby Pickens. Dim Roads and Dark Nights: The Collected Folklore of Ruby Pickens Tartt. Edited by Alan Brown. Livingston, Ala.: Livingston University Press, 1993.
———. Alabama: One Big Front Porch. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1985.
———. Twice Blessed. Montgomery, Ala.: Black Belt Press, 1996.