To change the text color of tabs, you need to get the view i.e TextView which is set as title of tabs and you can change it like this:
TabHost tabhost = getTabHost();
    for(int i=0;i<tabhost.getTabWidget().getChildCount();i++) 
    {
        TextView tv = (TextView) tabhost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(i).findViewById(android.R.id.title);
        tv.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#000000"));
    } 
EDIT : 
Another way is to create a custom view for your tabs. when you add tabs to your tabHost
FragmentTabHost tabHost;
tabHost = (FragmentTabHost) findViewById(android.R.id.tabhost);
        tabHost.setup(this, getSupportFragmentManager(), R.id.frame);
// create customView for each tabs
    View tabViewHome = createTabView(tabHost.getContext(), "Home", R.drawable.ic_home);
tabHost.addTab(tabHost.newTabSpec("Home").setIndicator(tabViewHome), HomeActivity.class, null);
private static View createTabView(final Context context, final String text, int iconId)
    {
            // inflate your layout here
        View view = LayoutInflater.from(context).inflate(R.layout.tab_layout, null);
        TextView tv = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.tab_tv_title);
        tv.setText(text);
            tv.setTextColor(Color.RED);
        ImageView iv = (ImageView) view.findViewById(R.id.tab_background_iv_icon);
        iv.setImageResource(iconId);
        return view;
    }
and your tab_layout.xml will be like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/tabsLayout"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="40dip"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:padding="5dip" 
    android:background="#AAE1E1E1">
     <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/tab_background_iv_icon"
        android:layout_width="30dip"
        android:layout_height="30dip"
        android:contentDescription="@string/imgDesc"
        />
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/tab_tv_title"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        //android:textColor="@drawable/tab_text_selector"
        android:textSize="8sp"
        android:textStyle="bold" />
</LinearLayout>
Hope this helps.