Jason Aldean Shooting Music Video at 1927 Lynching Site Sparks Backlash

Country music singer Jason Aldean is facing criticism after social media users claimed that his new music video was shot outside a courthouse where a white mob killed a Black man in 1927.

The claims came shortly after Aldean released the new song, titled Try That in a Small Town, where he sings about living in a small town and how residents have "each other's backs."

"Jason Aldean shot this at the site where a white lynch mob strung Henry Choate up at the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, after dragging his body through the streets with a car in 1927. That's where Aldean chose to sing about murdering people who don't respect police," Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press wrote on Twitter.

In a Twitter post announcing the video, Aldean wrote: "When u grow up in a small town, it's that unspoken rule of "we all have each other's backs and we look out for each other." It feels like somewhere along the way, that sense of community and respect has gotten lost. Deep down we are all ready to get back to that. I hope my new music video helps y'all know that u are not alone in feeling that way."

The song's lyrics include: "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."

Many suggested that Aldean's song was alluding to the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, where he was performing when 60 people were killed.

Some Twitter users criticized Aldean's lyrics in the song for discussing the use of guns, but others brought up the backdrop of the music video. Several claimed that the video was shot in front of the Maury County Courthouse, where Choate was hanged.

"Henry Choate was just 18. Reports suggest he was beaten horrifically before white supremacists murdered him in an act of terror. In Jason Aldean's video, an American flag hangs where Henry was murdered as Aldean sings 'I recommend you don't try that in a small town.' Sickening," Twitter user Nate Morris wrote.

Newsweek reached out to the Maury County Courthouse via email for comment.

Twitter user @jonnysocialism wrote: "Jason Aldean specifically picked this courthouse site of the 1927 KKK Lynching of Henry Choate for his music video about shooting and killing anyone who 'tries that in a small town.'"

In a behind-the-scenes video, Aldean confirmed that the video was shot outside the Maury County Courthouse.

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."

Newsweek reached out to Aldean's team via email for comment.