Azalea founders Joan Gibbs, Robin Christian, and Linda Brown formed in 1974, growing out of the Black Lesbian Caucus of the New York City Gay Activists Alliance (GAA).

An excerpt from the introduction of many of issues of Azalea elaborates how the group realized the need for independent community action.Azalea was created partially... because we feel that a lot of feminist and/or lesbian publications build walls around themselves in the same way as establishment publications do and it has been our experience that whenever standards are set in this country, the people who most often set them are white and thusly have not sought to include third world people[8]It was made clear by the magazine that they wanted to offer a space for third world lesbian writers.

Azalea was one of the driving components of minority recognition through community organization throughout the late 70s until 1983 when it released its final issue.

Rodger Streitmatter, author of Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America, notes that the founders of the periodical attempted not to perpetuate oppression and replicate societal biases by refusing to "assess the quality of contributions sent to them, publishing all material without any editing.

[10] Azalea's goal was to reach out and fill a void in contemporary publications that excluded Black and Latina writers.