These are the things you could do, but few can yield a living income (farming with a few acres? in this economy?) and most depends on their location, paving the way for yet more inequality. And there's still the problem of the unwanted present, I wouldn't want a few acres of land for myself, it would be a burden more than a gift.

A lump sum payment has the advantage of closing the reparations debate once and for all. It doesn't close the discrimination debate however, so the actual consequences of the reparations themselves have little bearing on this ongoing societal issue. Reparation is a question between the US government and descendants of slavery. Discrimination is a question between US citizens themselves, only loosely related to the slavery question. People of color are discriminated against even in countries that did not employ slaves.