An online fundraiser for Bree Newsome, the activist who is in custody after climbing a flagpole outside the South Carolina state capitol early on Saturday and taking down the Confederate flag, has raised more than $75,000 in eight hours.

Support for Miss Newsome is growing swiftly, helped by the hashtag #FreeBree on Twitter. Filmmaker Michael Moore has also offered to help pay her legal fees.

She is being hailed as a hero by opponents of the flag, her actions likened by the The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to those of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.