We investigated the effects of different types of colored distractors on early ERPs. We expected variation in ERPs depending on the distractor's type and its distance from the target to reveal the psychophysiological consequences of selection by color. In the first experiment participants searched an RSVP sequence for a prespecified target letter that was likely to appear in a cued color. ERPs elicited by cued-color distractors were similar to those elicited by targets indicating relatively complete processing of such distractors. In the second experiment one of the letters in the RSVP sequence was framed by an irrelevant distractor probe in either the cued color or an uncued color. The distractor probes in this experiment elicited a P1, N1, P2 sequence that depended on their color. In addition, probes presented shortly before the target tended to suppress the ERP components associated with target processing, especially for probes in the cued color. The results demonstrate electrophysiological consequences of attentional selection and capture by color.