A relative of Maj. George Washington Littlefield is suing University of Texas president Gregory L. Fenves for removing Confederate statues that his great grand uncle donated to the university in the 1920s.

In response to the deadly protest of a Confederate statue removal in Charlottesville, Va., Fenves ordered that four statues — including three of Confederate figures — displayed on the South Mall on campus be taken down overnight, with work starting Sunday after 10 p.m.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. Western District Court, says UT has gone back on an agreement with Littlefield, who donated money and land to the school in return for honoring his request that the university promote the "Southern perspective of American history."

It reads: "The university agreed to communicate political speech in perpetuity. Now, however, Pres. Fenves has breached the university’s promise to communicate minority political speech."

Patti Ohlendorf, UT-Austin’s chief lawyer, told the American-Statesman that Fenves consulted with a number of people before making what he considered the best decision — namely, to remove the statues from the South Mall. The decision was legally sound, she said.

The statues that Fenves ordered to be taken down honor Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, Confederate Postmaster John H. Reagan, and James Stephen Hogg, the first native-born governor of Texas and the son of a Confederate general.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Steven Littlefield, of Montana, and David McMahon, commander of the Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The attorney who filed the lawsuit, Kirk Lyons, filed a similar lawsuit in 2015 seeking to bar Fenves from removing the statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and of former President Woodrow Wilson from the South Mall. A judge denied Lyons’ request for a restraining order, and the university took down the statues days later.

The Davis statue was moved to a museum on campus; the Wilson statue is in storage.