From Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and the Election of 1960: A Project of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, ed. by Allida Black, et al:

By May 1960, John F. Kennedy seemed to be the early favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination, but Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey, and Adlai Stevenson all remained strong potential rivals. The West Virginia primary, held on May 10, 1960, proved to be a decisive battleground in the race. Kennedy, who had not faced serious opposition in the other primaries, suddenly faced a serious challenge from Hubert Humphrey, the junior senator from Minnesota. In order to secure his party’s nomination, Kennedy had to win West Virginia’s delegates. Losing would effectively take the decision off the convention floor and throw it into the hands of the Democratic Party’s powerful urban bosses, a development JFK was anxious to avoid because they would favor more seasoned party elders…

…Kennedy appealed to West Virginia’s long-held revulsion for prejudice; placed Humphrey, who had championed tolerance his entire career, on the defensive; and attacked him with a vengeance. Humphrey, who was short on funds, could not match the well-financed Kennedy operation. Kennedy defeated his rival soundly, winning 60.8 percent of the vote. That evening, Humphrey announced that he was no longer a candidate for the presidency. Kennedy knew the nomination was his if he could hold his delegates together once they reached the convention…

Funny isn’t it? May in 1960 was considered “early” in the process.

Ironic, also, isn’t this? Sen Obama, our latest new John F. Kennedy, and already now almost the presumptive Democratic nominee, couldn’t in 2008 even capture the hearts and minds of the tolerant Democratic electorate in the state that in 1960 had given their votes to JFK and had made him the likely nominee. Washington Post headline:

Clinton Handily Defeats Obama in West Virginia

Undoubtedly, some Newsweek writer will be telling us shortly of how her victory is merely an inconsequential reactionary fightback by some bigoted, ignorant, uncouth mountain Jacksonians, struggling to prevent the arrival of modernity (while, of course, forgetting to mention their voting for a woman).

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UPDATE: Actually, the Independent’s Mr “submerged racial prejudice of older white voters” Leonard Doyle, summing up in appropriate “Indy”-speak, has essentially beaten Newsweek to it:

Hillary Clinton won a big victory over Barack Obama in West Virginia when the state’s white working-class voters resolutely turned their backs on America’s first black presidential candidate…

Technically, he is still fighting for the nomination; he’s not yet officially the Democratic nominee. In any event, bad, bad white West Virginians. As Mr Doyle thoughtfully points out, you were supposed to vote for Sen Obama because he is black.