Indian American to receive grant honoring the first African-American students at the University of Georgia

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Indian American Abha Rai, a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia, has received a grant under the Giving Voice to the Voiceless endowment, to study domestic violence within South Asian immigrant communities.

“I want to be that voice for my community. I want to understand domestic violence and maybe even someday help end domestic violence. This project is the perfect opportunity for my own voice to be heard in an area of research where people are understudied and not much is known about them,” Rai is quoted saying in a press release.

The Giving Voice to the Voiceless endowment honors Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who were the first African-American students at the University of Georgia.

According to a press release, the Giving Voice to the Voiceless endowment was started by Hunter-Gault and her husband Ronald Gault, and provides grants to university students to promote social justice and global understanding.

Other recipients of the grant include Steve Armour, an archivist with the University Libraries, who will create an oral history with African American alumni who attended the university in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Kyla Brinkley, who graduated with degrees in public relations and English in May 2018 and continues to feel Hunter-Gault’s impact.