Cannot compose message text in any color besides black

I updated to Thunderbird v.136 last month and lost the ability to customize the color of text when either creating a new message or replying to a received message. In Settings on the Composition screen under HTML Style, I select a blue color for Text Color but when I compose a message I only get black. Before I click in the area of the message to type text, the color box shows the blue color, but as soon as I click in the area to compose text, the color box changes immediately to black. After I have typed that black text, if I select the text & click on the color box to change to color to blue (or any other color), the text stays black. How can I have colored (non-black) text in messages I compose?