At least six former employees are asking Morgan Stanley to release them from confidentiality agreements so they can tell their stories of alleged racial discrimination at the investment bank. The request, which was released in an open letter on Tuesday, follows a lawsuit last month by the bank’s former diversity chief, Marilyn Booker, claiming systemic racial discrimination against women of color. Lawyer Jeanne Christensen, who also represents Booker, said the employees requesting release from non-disclosure agreements have “important” stories to tell and “feel a heightened sense of obligation to come forward in the wake of the recently intensified BLM movement, but need to do so without fear of retribution”. In the letter, which was posted on Medium and addressed to Morgan Stanley’s board of directors, Christensen offered the example of a former executive director she claimed was let go in December after two decades at the firm as part of a reduction in force (RIF) initiative. “Just months earlier, this employee had created a diversity initiative intended to address systemic race discrimination at Morgan Stanley – and had advocated this initiative to numerous executives. Rather than doing anything, this black employee was terminated,” the letter claims. Morgan Stanley declined to comment. Booker’s racial-bias accusations against the bank alleged she experienced and witnessed “systemic racial discrimination” against African American employees at the bank. Booker, one of the most senior black executives on Wall Street, said she repeatedly voiced her concerns to the company’s “white, male-centric leadership” about “irrefutable and appalling patterns” in the firm’s hiring, retention and lack of advancement of black employees. Booker claimed that only 41, or fewer than 3%, of the 1,382 managing directors the firm has named since 2012 are black. “Black lives did not matter at Morgan Stanley,” she claimed in the lawsuit, alleging that her budget was cut so badly that she was forced to spend “thousands of her own dollars just to attend events that promoted diversity so that Morgan Stanley would not humiliatingly go unrepresented”. Morgan Stanley said it strongly rejected the allegations and would “vigorously defend” the action. “We are steadfast in our commitment to improve the diversity of our employees and have made steady progress – while recognizing that we have further progress to make,” Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Mary Claire Delaney said in a statement. “We will continue to advance our high-priority efforts to achieve a more diverse and inclusive firm.” Booker’s allegations were made days after chief executive James Gorman announced that Morgan Stanley would diversify its leadership and spend millions to raise up its black executives. Gorman announced he was so “moved” by racial injustice protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody that a commitment to diversity and inclusion would become one of Morgan Stanley’s five core values. He also said he had promoted two black women to operating and leadership roles, created a new $25m institution inside Morgan Stanley dedicated to diversity and donate $5m to the NAACP. “The pain, fear, sadness and anger felt by the black community, and also by the vast majority of people globally, is palpable,” he wrote. Christensen, the lawyer acting for former employees requesting release from non-disclosure agreements, countered on Tuesday that Morgan Stanley “must disclose the percentage of black employees and persons of color that were part of the RIF as compared to white employees”. The lawyer said the bank should “welcome greater transparency, including about who is selected for termination” if it has “nothing to hide about the racial composition of its workforce, including data about hiring, retention, promotion and pay”. The letter noted that despite claims that layoffs were needed, the bank this month posted “a stunning profit of $3.2bn” and a “record” increase in revenue of around 30% to $13.4bn. “No longer can Morgan Stanley have it both ways: either it allows black employees to speak about their racial bias experiences or it produces workforce data.” The demand comes as top Wall Street banks are coming under pressure over the underrepresentation of African American employees. According to Bloomberg, just one of 80 people on executive teams heading the six largest US banks – the Citigroup chief financial officer, Mark Mason – is black. Earlier this month, the New York city comptroller, Scott Stringer, sent letters to the chief executives of 67 S&P 100 companies calling on them to match statements supporting racial equality, diversity and inclusion, by publicly disclosing their annual EEO-1 diversity report data. In his letter, Stringer wrote disclosure would allow boards “to benchmark” data. “We’re asking companies that issued statements in support of racial justice to walk the walk and publicly disclose the demographics of their employees by race, gender, and ethnicity – including in their leadership and senior management,” he said.