A judge's ruling on Friday sided with those who oppose relocating the Christopher Columbus statue in Syracuse, and now both sides are gearing up for a continued legal battle.

On Monday, about 70 people rallied for the statue's removal.

"I was heartbroken to see a symbol of division remain in our center," Sarah Nahtar, a religious and environmental studies student, said outside the Onondaga County Courthouse. "As a young mother and as students, graduate students, I want to see change. I want to see a better future and a city for everyone."

For those gathered, that future wouldn't include the European explorer, whose history is coming under more scrutiny with time.

"I and neighbors of the Onondaga Nation don't want this statue in any sort of public setting," said Andy Mager, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation organizer. "We don't put up statues of just anybody. People have been calling for this for decades, a real heightened call in the last several years, and it's time for the statute to go."

With Friday's ruling, the Columbus Monument Corporation initially won its suit against the city of Syracuse to keep the statue in place. That's not to say they don't understand the importance of shining a brighter light on the past.

Former State Senator John DeFrancisco pointed to the corporation and the concrete park just outside the courthouse, and said he wanted it to be a tool for unity.

"If you want it more inclusive, we agree with that and we still agree with it," DeFrancisco said. "We're willing to work with the mayor now, even though we won the case, to try to get additional ethnic groups in the Columbus Circle.

"The founders who wrote the constitution, they wrote these beautiful words about liberty and equality and freedom, while enshrining into that constitution that people could be owned by other people as property,” Mager said. “So we've never lived up to those ideals, but they're powerful ideals and we want to call on us as a community and as a nation to live up to them as fully as we can.”

DeFranciso pointed to fiscal responsibility.

"But there's so many issues that are happening in the city of Syracuse, that he doesn't need money to spend thousands of dollars on a lawsuit to get rid of a statue that should not be gotten rid of," he said.

Feeling strongly that Black and Indigenous people's stories share parts of history and the future, Nahtar doesn't think the court, a corporation or even the 70 people in attendance should have final say.

"Every decision about what happens in Syracuse should also be accountable to the Onondaga Nation, the traditional caretakers of this place, so I am humbled and ready and listening to what they have to say, what they want to see," Nahtar said.