August 11
Jeff Dunn, Dallas Attorney and Historian
History and Memory at the Alamo and San Jacinto Battleground
Jeff Dunn will not dwell on the facts of these events, but instead will focus on what happened to these sites after 1836, how and when the state acquired the sites, and the controversies that followed concerning how to present these sites to the public.
From Wikipedia: “The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Houston, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Samuel Houston, the Texan Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Ann’s Mexican army in a fight that lasted just 18 minutes. A detailed, first-hand account of the battle was written by General Houston from the headquarters of the Texan Army, San Jacinto, on April 25, 1836. Numerous secondary analyses and interpretations have followed.”
Jeff Dunn is married to Lea Dunn, former city manager of Addison. He has had a life long interest in Texas history and has written several articles about the battle of San Jacinto. He founded and the nonprofit San Jacinto Battleground Association in 2002 and served as Chairman of the San Jacinto Historical Advisory Board (2000-2007), having been appointed to the Board in 1996 by Governor George W. Bush and reappointed by Gov. Rick Perry. He also served as Chairman of the Dallas County Historical Commission and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Texas State Historical Association. Jeff is an attorney with Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, in Dallas, and his practice area focuses on banking and finance law.