UITableView change header title color

This is an old question, but I think the answer needs to be updated.

This method does not involve defining and creating your own custom view. In iOS 6 and up, you can easily change the background color and the text color by defining the

-(void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView 
    willDisplayHeaderView:(UIView *)view 
    forSection:(NSInteger)

delegate method.

For example:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayHeaderView:(UIView *)view forSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    // Background color
    view.tintColor = [UIColor blackColor];

    // Text Color
    UITableViewHeaderFooterView *header = (UITableViewHeaderFooterView *)view;
    [header.textLabel setTextColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];

    // Another way to set the background color
    // Note: does not preserve gradient effect of original header
    // header.contentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor];
}

Taken from my post here: https://happyteamlabs.com/blog/ios-how-to-customize-table-view-header-and-footer-colors/

Swift 5.0:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) {
    if let header = view as? UITableViewHeaderFooterView {
        header.textLabel?.textColor = .white
    }
}

Swift 4 version:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) {
    guard let headerView = view as? UITableViewHeaderFooterView else { return }
    headerView.textLabel?.textColor = .red // any color
}

Implement the tableView:viewForHeaderInSection: method in the tableViewController. That will allow you to supply your own view for the headers, which can include a UILabel with whatever formatting you want, e.g.

-(UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    UILabel *customLabel = [[UILabel alloc] init];
    customLabel.text = [self tableView:tableView titleForHeaderInSection:section];
    return customLabel;
}

Remember to set the label frame to be tall enough to space out the sections. You may wish to embed the label inside a larger UIView and return that instead to simplify positioning (e.g. if you want increase the left-padding on the label).

It took me a few minutes to "translate" this to Swift, but here's a working equivalent in Swift 1.2 (iOS 8). Be sure and implement UITableViewDelegate in your class:

// MARK: - VIEW METHODS
override func viewDidLoad() {
    tableView.delegate = self
}

// MARK: - TABLEVIEW DELEGATE METHODS
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) {
    let header = view as! UITableViewHeaderFooterView
    header.textLabel.textColor = UIColor.whiteColor()
}