WFAA-TV

DALLAS - While KwanzaaFest, one of Dallas' top cultural events, is set to be held this weekend, one of its major sponsors is now being accused of discriminating against some its African American employees.

Some employees of AT&T, who are sponsoring the event, say they face harassment and retaliation.

"Nothing is worse than for the public to have one image of you that you bought and paid for only to find there's something all together different going on behind closed doors," said Vincent Hall, one of the founders of KwanzaaFest.

Hall has also worked for AT&T for more than 25 years; and what he said has been happening behind closed doors at AT&T has been discrimination.

Last year, he said he complained when he thought one of his African American employees was being treated unfairly. Soon after, he said, he was demoted. Before his complaint, Hall said he had never received a bad review.

"I went from royalty to the worst person in the world," he said.

AT&T refused to comment on the case because its in litigation, but Hall hasn't been the only person voicing complaints. Three other discrimination lawsuits have been filed against the same manager.

Hall managed 150 people in the company's Arlington office.

"When they had new managers, they sent them to me to mentor," he said. "If they had people who came out of college who were high achievers, they sent them to me to mentor, to work [and] to shape."

Stephen Drinnon, Hall's attorney, said he believes he knows the direction the company is heading since Hall was demoted.

"Obviously, they're setting him up to get rid of him," he said.

Drinnon represents three more African American AT&T employees that all complained about the same supervisor. He said each of their cases show the company never contacted the supervisor during the course of its internal investigations.

"You might as well not say you investigated at all," Drinnon said.

Hall said when the company demoted him, it made him the assistant to the person who he originally complained about.

E-mail dschechter@wfaa.com