In 1950, at the age of 82, Du Bois
ran for U.S. Senator from New York on the
American Labor Party ticket and received about 200,000 votes, or 4% of the statewide total.
[267] Du Bois continued to believe that capitalism was the primary culprit responsible for the subjugation of colored people around the world, and therefore – although he recognized the faults of the Soviet Union – he continued to uphold communism as a possible solution to racial problems.
[268] In the words of biographer David Lewis, Du Bois did not endorse communism for its own sake, but did so because "the enemies of his enemies were his friends".
[268] The same ambiguity characterized Du Bois's opinions of
Joseph Stalin: in 1940 he wrote disdainfully of the "Tyrant Stalin",
[269] but when Stalin died in 1953, Du Bois wrote a eulogy characterizing Stalin as "simple, calm, and courageous", and lauding him for being the "first [to] set Russia on the road to conquer race prejudice and make one nation out of its 140 groups without destroying their individuality".
[270]