In a second collection of speeches by African-American activists, academics, and politicians, Catherine Ellis and Stephen Drury Smith provide a compilation highlighting the evolution of ideas on civil rights and the African-American identity. From Malcolm X’s 1964 “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech to Barack Obama’s 2008 “A More Perfect Union,” this collection speaks to conflicts that extend beyond race, to class, gender, and the basic organization of American society. Equally inspiring are the introductions to the speeches, which put each orator’s words into both personal and historical context. SAY IT LOUD (New Press, $35) allows readers to look through the lenses of major and minor players in the modern civil rights movement, among them Lorraine Hansberry, Shirley Chisholm, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Michael Eric Dyson. An added bonus is the CD, which has all but one speech recorded live.