In iOS 7.0.4 I created a custom header with it's own XIB. Nothing mentioned here before worked. It had to be the subclass of the UITableViewHeaderFooterView to work with the dequeueReusableHeaderFooterViewWithIdentifier: and it seems that class is very stubborn regarding the background color. So finally I added an UIView (you could do it either with code or IB) with name customBackgroudView, and then set it's backgroundColor property. In layoutSubviews: I set that view's frame to bounds. It work with iOS 7 and gives no glitches.

// in MyTableHeaderView.xib drop an UIView at top of the first child of the owner
// first child becomes contentView

// in MyTableHeaderView.h
@property (nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UIView * customBackgroundView;

// in MyTableHeaderView.m
-(void)layoutSubviews;
{
    [super layoutSubviews];

    self.customBackgroundView.frame = self.bounds;
}
// if you don't have XIB / use IB, put in the initializer:
-(id)initWithReuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier
{
    ...
    UIView * customBackgroundView = [[UIView alloc] init];
    [self.contentView addSubview:customBackgroundView];
    _customBackgroundView = customBackgroundView;
    ...
}


// in MyTableViewController.m
-(UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    MyTableHeaderView * header = [self.tableView
                                          dequeueReusableHeaderFooterViewWithIdentifier:@"MyTableHeaderView"];
    header.customBackgroundView.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
    return header;
}

设置区域的背景和文本颜色:(感谢William Jockusch和Dj S)

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayHeaderView:(UIView *)view forSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    if ([view isKindOfClass: [UITableViewHeaderFooterView class]]) {
        UITableViewHeaderFooterView* castView = (UITableViewHeaderFooterView*) view;
        castView.contentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor grayColor];
        [castView.textLabel setTextColor:[UIColor grayColor]];
    }
}

如果你正在使用自定义头视图:

class YourCustomHeaderFooterView: UITableViewHeaderFooterView { 

override func awakeFromNib() {
    super.awakeFromNib()
    self.contentView.backgroundColor = .white //Or any color you want
}

}

下面是如何更改文本颜色。

UILabel *label = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10, 3, tableView.bounds.size.width - 10, 18)] autorelease];
label.text = @"Section Header Text Here";
label.textColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:1.0 green:1.0 blue:1.0 alpha:0.75];
label.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
[headerView addSubview:label];

如果你不想创建一个自定义视图，你也可以像这样改变颜色(需要iOS 6):

-(void) tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayHeaderView:(UIView *)view forSection:(NSInteger)section {
    if ([view isKindOfClass: [UITableViewHeaderFooterView class]]) {
        UITableViewHeaderFooterView* castView = (UITableViewHeaderFooterView*) view;
        UIView* content = castView.contentView;
        UIColor* color = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.85 alpha:1.]; // substitute your color here
        content.backgroundColor = color;
    }
}

斯威夫特2

我成功地通过添加模糊效果改变了部分背景颜色(这真的很酷)。要轻松更改部分的背景颜色:

首先转到Storyboard并选择表视图 转到属性检查器 列表项 向下滚动到视图 改变“背景”

然后为模糊效果，添加到代码:

override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, willDisplayHeaderView view: UIView, forSection section: Int) {

    // This is the blur effect

    let blurEffect = UIBlurEffect(style: .Light)
    let blurEffectView = UIVisualEffectView(effect: blurEffect)

    // Gets the header view as a UITableViewHeaderFooterView and changes the text colour and adds above blur effect
    let headerView: UITableViewHeaderFooterView = view as! UITableViewHeaderFooterView
    headerView.textLabel!.textColor = UIColor.darkGrayColor()
    headerView.textLabel!.font = UIFont(name: "HelveticaNeue-Light", size: 13)
    headerView.tintColor = .groupTableViewBackgroundColor()
    headerView.backgroundView = blurEffectView

}