1-(6-acrylamidohexylamino)-4-(methylamino)anthraquinone (AHMAQ), a blue polymerizable dye, was first synthesized from an anthraquinone derivative, and its chemical structure was confirmed by 1H-NMR and IR. Then, a series of covalently colored polymer latexes were prepared by semi-continuous emulsion copolymerization of styrene (St), butyl acrylate (BA), and AHMAQ using 4,4-azobis(4-cyanovaleric acid) (ACVA) as initiator, and the influences of AHMAQ and ACVA on the emulsion polymerization as well as the properties of the resulted copolymer latexes were investigated. Results showed that both the conversion of the dye monomer and the molecular weight of the latex polymer decreased with the increase of AHMAQ amount from 0 to 0.3 wt %. Increasing the ACVA amount resulted in higher monomer conversion but larger gel ratio, and optimum amount of ACVA was 1.2 wt % to the total monomers. Comparing with the noncovalently blue latex film colored with the unreactive dye, the light fastness of the blue P(St-BA-MAA-AHMAQ) latex films was greatly promoted by the covalent incorporation of chromophores with polymer matrix. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013