When I saw the pictures, it felt like somebody hit me in the gut. No, these weren’t gruesome photographs of a murder. Those make you grit your teeth in rage. These were personal. These old pictures from 1982 ripped open an old wound.

We found the pictures in an old, archived file. Some showed the flames roaring into the sky. Others captured the charred walls and knee-deep ashes. The photographs were taken during and after the fire that burned the Fayette County Courthouse in April of 1982.

Since 1821 the proud structure had stood as the symbol of Fayette County. It was a legend. School teachers took pupils to walk around the building and shared with us the grand history of the courthouse. Stories about trials. The story about the Texas cavalry saving the building from the torches Sherman’s soldiers brought.

When we gave directions to visitors, we used the courthouse as a landmark. It was our “Big Chicken.” When people asked us where we were from and we answered, we often added, “We’ve got the oldest active courthouse in Georgia.” I know it sounds silly now, but the courthouse was a part of our identity.

I was away at law school when I got the phone call. A criminal had burned the courthouse. He had thought they couldn’t try his case if the courthouse wasn’t there. I felt like vomiting.

I’ve talked with others who were in Fayetteville the day after the arson. They say that citizens quietly streamed to the square and stared in silence. Our pride as a community lay before them in piles of burnt timber, blackened bricks and smoky ashes.

Of course, Fayette County recovered. The arsonist went to prison. We rebuilt the building. And we developed other sources of great pride. Today when we say we’re from Fayette County, we don’t have to explain where that is. And it is the other party who says, “Oh, yeah. Y’all have great schools there.”

Those pictures of the burnt courthouse helped me understand why I feel personally violated when gangs recruit in our schools or people make threats to do violence in the schools. I’m proud of the schools in the same way I once was proud of the courthouse. And criminals can’t have our schools.