Kerry's Honoree

From Bob Novak's Saturday column:

Sen. John Kerry is sponsoring a resolution honoring black activist W.E.B. Du Bois, who officially joined the Communist Party late in life after faithful support of the Soviet line in world affairs.

Du Bois praised Soviet dictator and mass murderer Joseph Stalin as "great" and "courageous" and defended Communist North Korea for its 1950 invasion of South Korea. Du Bois was a founder of the NAACP, but was later expelled from the civil rights organization for opposing racial integration. A winner of the Lenin Peace Prize, Du Bois ended his life as an exile in Ghana (where he died in 1963 at age 95).

Kerry's resolution lauds Du Bois, a longtime socialist, for having "played an intricate role in the development of the entrepreneurial spirit, capitalism, and economic independence in the African-American community." The resolution is also sponsored by Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Carl Levin, as well as 36 Democratic House members and one Republican, Rep. Dave Hobson of Ohio.