Chester C. Davenport Memorial Endowment

The purpose of the Fund is to provide scholarships, fellowships, and distinguished law fellowships to students within the School of Law. Preference will be given to graduates of Georgia-based historically Black colleges and universities and to those who demonstrate characteristics consistent with Chester C. Davenport’s legacy, including, but not limited to, academic excellence, courage, determination, and a trailblazing spirit.

An Athens native and Morehouse College graduate, Davenport was a monumental figure in the School of Law's history. He was the law school's first Black student and remained its only Black student during his law school career. He earned his law degree in 1966, finishing in the top 5% of his class. As a student, he also served as a founding member of the editorial board for the Georgia Law Review.

After law school, Davenport became an attorney in the tax division of the U.S. Department of Justice and subsequently served as a legislative assistant for California Sen. Alan Cranston. Following a position on President Jimmy Carter's transition team and an appointment as an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Davenport co-founded a law practice based in Washington, D.C. He later started Georgetown Partners, a private equity firm.

Davenport's service to UGA includes positions on the law school's Board of Visitors and the UGA Arch Foundation. He delivered the law school's 97th Sibley Lecture and participated in the school's 50th anniversary commemoration of the landmark Brown v. Topeka Board of Education case. In 2006, he made a transformational gift to the law school to support student scholarships. The UGA chapter of the Black Law Students Association bears his name and, in 2016, he received the law school alumni association's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Scroll Award.