Set in the 1980s, August Wilson's King Hedley II (1999) reveals a world in which the lives of many people are in danger. Twenty years after the passage of the Voting Right Act and its accompanying promise of social change, conditions for African Americans in the inner cities are, perhaps, worse than ever. Reaganomics has failed to trickle down, black-on-black crime is at its height, the youth of the community suffer the oppression of crack culture, and, by 1990, the unemployment rate for black men is twice as high as for white. US Department of Justice statistics for the late 1980s reveal that African Americans represented 12 per cent of the population but were responsible for 50 per cent of all homicides and 66 per cent of all robberies; 50 per cent of all urban blacks were arrested for a serious crime at least once in their lifetime. Most of the crimes occurred within dominantly or completely African American communities. The victims were rivals, neighbours, enemies, relatives. The availability of drugs and guns and the distinct lack of opportunities determined the fate of many young men and women whose isolation from community and history made them easy prey. They had lost their cultural connection; Aunt Ester was dead.