[9] Color of Change was co-founded in 2005 by James Rucker and Van Jones to replicate the MoveOn.org email list model among African American Internet users.

[12][18] The Chicago Tribune's Howard Witt noted that Color of Change was the only national civil rights group to be fully transparent with their use of the funds related to the Jena Six.

[35] In March 2015, Color of Change and Media Matters for America released Not To Be Trusted: Dangerous Levels of Inaccuracy in TV Crime Reporting in NYC,[36] a report detailing how the organization believes that local news coverage in New York City distorts the picture of criminal justice, and the negative impacts this inaccurate imagery has on black communities.

[37] In January 2013, Color of Change launched a campaign demanding that Oxygen and its parent company, NBCUniversal, cease production on the reality TV show All My Babies’ Mamas, starring rapper Shawty Lo and the ten mothers of his eleven children.

Askew was shot by a police officer in 2003 moments after he assassinated the New York City council member James Davis while he still had seven bullets in his gun.

[42] Pascal had suggested President Barack Obama would enjoy Django Unchained and The Butler, two films which deal with slavery in the United States and the pre-civil rights era.

[45] In July 2014, Color of Change launched a campaign calling out ten members of the Congressional Black Caucus for opposing efforts to protect net neutrality.

[48][49] After the campaign was expanded to a protest of stand-your-ground laws following the Trayvon Martin shooting, a number of major companies pulled their funding from ALEC.

James Rucker, one of the founders of Color of Change, argued that Fox was using its partnership with the CBC as part of an image building campaign to make itself appear more "Black-friendly.

[54] In 2019, Color of Change joined several other organizations calling for support for net neutrality by asking for pressure to be put on Senator Mitch McConnell to stop blocking the Save the Internet Act in the U.S.