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Right now there is a national conversation going on about whether the nation should be paying reparations to its african american citizens. recently reporter trymaine lee visited georgetown university in washington, d.c. where students are pushing for their school to repair the sins of its past. >> reporter: georgetown is one of the most prestigious universities in the united states. it was founded by jesuits in 1789 on the backs of slave labor. the university owned plantations in maryland and even enslaved people on campus, but it wasn't until 2015 that a student researcher discovered the uni...

And maryland, if you're put in a community that doesn't have a lot of social mobility and resource, that's directly the result of georgetown selling your ancestors to individuals in this location. >> reporter: shepherd thomas is one of the many descendants of those 272 people. he still has relatives in that community in louisiana. >> treat this as justice. so even though like you could say justice is -- it is fairness for all. equality is one thing but equity is another. >> reporter: what do you hope for? when you think about what the university could do. >> i hope for the university fully ack...

Built by enslaved people. you are enthere enjoying the benefits of their labor. if we don't want to acknowledge our ties, how be you go work out on the anacostia river somewhere or some place like that. i'm being flip about that, but i was doing a research for that testimony. as late as 2017, we were pegging pensions to the last heir of a civil war veteran. >> wow. >> right now we're still paying pensions from the spanish american war, things that happened long before i was alive and you were alive, yet we don't have any problem with that. >> one of the points that struck me about the georgeto...

Pegging pensions to the last heir of a civil war veteran. we are at this very moment still paying pensions to the veterans of spanish-american war. long before i was alive and you were alive and we don't have a problem with that. >> one of the points that struck me about the georgetown story, this is fascinating. this is one university. it's a laboratory and a little pilot program. in that case, it's like there are records of this stuff. >> sure. >> they have the 272 names and the amount of money that they are going to spend and the community where they can track the descendents. >> listen, as...

>> we're not making a gift to these people. their, like, quality of life is directly tied to the actions of the university. even just geographically. being put in communities in louisiana and maryland, if you're put in a community that doesn't have a lot of social mobility and resource, that's directly the result of georgetown selling your ancestors to individuals in this location. >> reporter: shepard thomas is one of the many descendants of 272 people. he still has relatives in that community in louisiana. >> i treat this as justice. so even though you can say justice is victory, i feel like...