The statues of four people with ties to the Confederacy, including Gen. Robert E. Lee, were removed from their pedestals on the UT-Austin campus late Sunday night.

University President Greg Fenves announced the removal in a written statement and said he made the decision to take down the statues after talks with student leaders, faculty, staff and alumni in light of the deadly Aug. 12 clash in Charlottesville, Va.

The events of Charlottesville "make it clear, now more than ever, that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism," Fenves said.

The statues of Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John H. Reagan and former Gov. James Stephen Hogg were removed. Three of those — Lee, Johnston and Reagan — will be added to the collection at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History for "scholarly study," he said.

Johnston was a general in the Texas, U.S. and Confederate armies, and Reagan was the postmaster general of the Confederacy.

1 / 8Confederate General Robert E. Lee statue is removed from the south mall of the University of Texas at Austin early in the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. UT president Greg Fenves ordered the removal of Confederate statues from the campus late Sunday evening.(Stephen Spillman / Special Contributor) 2 / 8Confederate General Robert E. Lee statue is removed from the south mall of the University of Texas at Austin early in the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. UT president Greg Fenves ordered the removal of Confederate statues from the campus late Sunday evening. (Stephen Spillman / Special Contributor) 3 / 8Onlookers celebrate as a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is removed from the University of Texas campus, early Monday morning, Aug. 21, 2017, in Austin, Texas. University of Texas President Greg Fenves ordered the immediate removal of statues of Robert E. Lee and other prominent Confederate figures from a main area of campus, saying such monuments have become "symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism." (Eric Gay / AP) 4 / 8Confederate statutes removed from the University of Texas are covered and secured to a trailer, early Monday morning, Aug. 21, 2017, in Austin, Texas.(Eric Gay / AP) 5 / 8Onlookers watch as Confederate statuses are removed from the south mall of the University of Texas at Austin early in the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. UT president Greg Fenves ordered the removal of Confederate statues from the campus late Sunday evening. (Stephen Spillman / Special Contributor) 6 / 8Confederate Post Master General John Reagan statue is removed from the south mall of the University of Texas at Austin early in the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. UT president Greg Fenves ordered the removal of Confederate statues from the campus late Sunday evening. (Stephen Spillman / Special Contributor) 7 / 8Confederate Post Master General John Reagan statue is removed from the south mall of the University of Texas at Austin early in the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. UT president Greg Fenves ordered the removal of Confederate statues from the campus late Sunday evening. (Stephen Spillman / Special Contributor) 8 / 8Onlookers Jack Considine, left, and James Vidal watch as Confederate statuses are removed from the south mall of the University of Texas at Austin early in the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. UT president Greg Fenves ordered the removal of Confederate statues from the campus late Sunday evening. (Stephen Spillman / Special Contributor)

The statue of Hogg, who served as governor from 1891 to 1895 and was the son of a Confederate general, will be considered for re-installation at another campus location, he said.

Removal of the statues from the South Mall in the heart of campus began about 11 p.m. No advance notice was given for public safety reasons, university spokesman Gary Susswein said.

The area was cordoned off Sunday night, and police officers stood watch as crews worked.

1 / 5Edwin Bryan Robert Jr. sits at the base of a pedestal and "remembers history" after a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed at the University of Texas at Austin on Monday Aug. 21, 2017. Edwin Robert is an alumnus of UT, and believes there should have been more public debate before the removal of the Confederate statues under cover of darkness early Monday morning.(Jay Janner / Austin American-Statesman) 2 / 5Bolts and rubble are exposed atop a pedestal that had held a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which was removed from the University of Texas campus early Monday morning, Aug. 21, 2017, in Austin, Texas.(Eric Gay / AP) 3 / 5Clayton Souza smiles as he walks past an empty pedestal where a statue of Confederate Postmaster John Reagan was displayed on the UT campus Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. "It's a great moment for the U.S., and for Texas," Souza said.(Jay Janner / Austin American-Statesman) 4 / 5A pedestal wrapped in plastic that had held a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which was removed from the University of Texas campus early Monday morning is photographed, Aug. 21, 2017, in Austin, Texas.(Eric Gay / AP) 5 / 5Students pass a pedestal wrapped in plastic that had hosted a statue of Confederate Postmaster General John H. Reagan which was removed from the University of Texas campus early Monday morning, Aug. 21, 2017, in Austin, Texas.(Eric Gay / AP)

The university removed the statues of Jefferson Davis and former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 2015 following a task force formed in the wake of the June 2015 church shooting in Charleston, S.C.

The four statues being removed Sunday were also named in the task force report, which presented a series of options including installing materials to put the statues in context or removing them.

UT was not alone in its decision to remove the monuments. Duke University took down its damaged statue of Lee early Saturday after it was vandalized. There have also been calls to take down a Confederate soldier statue from the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, The Associated Press reported.

And several cities, including Dallas, are grappling with how to handle their monuments, while others, including Baltimore and Birmingham, Ala., have removed or covered theirs.

Thousands rallied Saturday night in Dallas, calling for an end to the Confederate statues in the city and denouncing white supremacy.

The rally, one of several nationwide, was in response to the deadly clash last week between white supremacists and counterprotesters in Virginia that was sparked after the city announced plans to remove a statue of Lee. A woman was killed and several others injured when a man drove through the crowd of counterprotesters.

The four statues removed from the University of Texas at Austin's South Mall were (clockwise from top left): Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, Gov. James Hogg and John Reagan. (2015 File Photos / Staff)

Fenves said the history and cultural significance of the statues on the UT campus are compromised by what they stand for.

"Erected during the period of Jim Crow laws and segregation, the statues represent the subjugation of African-Americans. That remains true today for white supremacists who use them to symbolize hatred and bigotry," Fenves said. The university "has a duty to preserve and study history. But our duty also compels us to acknowledge that those parts of our history that run counter to the university's core values, the values of our state and the enduring values of our nation do not belong on pedestals in the heart of the Forty Acres."

Classes resume Aug. 30.