- Feb 6, 2002
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Country music star records a video outside the courthouse where in 1927 a black man was lynched. Lyrics quoted...
Some accounts of the lynching
Those of you who don't know look up the phrase "sundown town". Choate was brutally lynched over an accusation.
www.newsweek.com
CMT has pulled the video. Justified?
"See how far ya make it down the road/Around here, we take care of our own/You cross that line, it won't take long/ For you to find out, I recommend you don't/Try that in a small town."
Some accounts of the lynching
"Henry Choate was just 18. Reports suggest he was beaten horrifically before white supremacists murdered him in an act of terror.
According to reports, Choate was 18 when he was accused of assaulting a 16-year-old white girl in Tennessee. Choate denied the attack but was eventually hanged from the second floor of the courthouse and died.
The John Banks Civil War Blog reported that the Nashville Tennessean published on its front page on November 12, 1927, that a Black man was "lynched" in Columbia, Tennessee for "attack on girl," and that an "unmasked mob estimated at 350 men storms jail with sledge hammer."
According to the blog, the paper reported the "Success of the lynching" after Choate died, adding that "Maury County had been disgraced." Three days later, Editor James Finney wrote: "Executions by mob are murder, nothing more, nothing less."
Those of you who don't know look up the phrase "sundown town". Choate was brutally lynched over an accusation.

Jason Aldean shooting music video at 1927 lynching site sparks backlash
In a behind-the-scenes video, Aldean confirmed that the music video was shot outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee.

CMT has pulled the video. Justified?