SAG HARBOR, N.Y.

YOU could say that Morris Reid didn't so much give a party for Tracey L. Brown last weekend as take one ? from a client, a liquor conglomerate, eager to back a series of get-togethers. Such is the nature of Hamptons entertaining that the purpose is not just a fun night out but sometimes to promote an agenda ? in this case, putting certain brands into the hands of the right crowd. And this was the right crowd. Ms. Brown, a lawyer and author, is the daughter of Ronald H. Brown, commerce secretary under Bill Clinton, who died in 1996 in a plane crash in Croatia.

The party was held in the five-bedroom waterfront house belonging to Alma Brown, Ms. Brown's mother. It was built in 1998 in a neighborhood that is a home to many prominent African-Americans, including the lawyer Johnny Cochran; the lifestyle guru B. Smith; Earl Graves Jr., the founder of Black Enterprise magazine; and Susan Taylor, the editor of Essence magazine.

"In the Hamptons, the whites have their place, and this is ours ? we're not all P. Diddy," said Lisa Bonner, an entertainment lawyer based in Los Angeles and once Ms. Brown's classmate at Boston College.