Hendrix's time seemed to have a divide between black and white music whereas he seemed to cross that divide. I might be far off with that assessment as my knowledge of music history is not very good, but I always wondered what the reaction to him in the South was.
I can't tell you much about after he found fame, but before he was famous he was prominent in Tennesse. Hendrix was a fan of the R and B scene around Clarksville. It's there he saw a local musician playing guitar with his teeth and picked up that trick.
He eventually moved to Jefferson Street in Nashville which was the traditional heart of the city's black community and picked up a residency with one of the community's most popular clubs, The Club del Morocco.
From there he just went up and up. For two years in the early 60s he traveled the now-famous Chitlin' circuit at clubs around The South. His reputation grew to the point where he would often be hired as a backing musician for various soul, R&B, and blues musicians, including Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson.
After that he moved away from The South and did most of the stuff he was famous for. I wasn't able to find any southern-specific reactions to his death.
A bit of a broad question - is this perceptions among the black or white communities, or just the South in general? Another difficulty is that there isn't much (or as much) information about his experiences or perceptions of him the South than there is about places like New York or London. However, there are some things here and there that I know of.
Firstly, in his interview with Dick Cavett in 1969, Cavett asked Hendrix about his military service, and why he left. Jimi stated that he got discharged (in '62) as he broke his ankle from a parachute jump in a drill (in reality though, he forced his discharge by being caught masturbating over another soldier). The whole reason this was brought up is because, as Cavett later said, he wanted to make Hendrix, an African-American hippie, seem patriotic to his audience, knowing that Southerners and Biker Gangs would have some respect for Jimi if they knew he had served in the military, especially in the 101st Airborne.
Secondly, Hendrix developed a vast amount of his playing style and technical ability in the South (after he was discharged from Fort Campbell in Kentucky). He found gigs in small towns, especially along the Chitlin Circuit, a circuit of Southern and Mid-Western venues that would host gigs. Given this, he was already pretty well known in the South, and was touring with groups such as Sam and Dave and the Isely Brothers, before heading for England in '66. However, like every other black musician of the time he did have to deal with racism from the audiences and Southern community. I can't expand on this much, since I don't own the book that has information on this, Becoming Jimi Hendrix, but I recommend you look in there for more.
Also, Hendrix wasn't very involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In that sense, one could say he did transcend these racial barriers by hardly becoming involved in the issue, going as so far to reject an offer by Martin Luther King to speak/play at a civil rights rally. However, it is noted that on the night of King's assassination, Hendrix paid tribute to him in concert.
So, in answer to your question, Hendrix, for the most part, was perceived like any other black musician in the South, though with exceptions. His military service was recognised and lauded; his apolitical stance on the Civil Rights Movement made it so he came into little conflict with those opposing the movement; and his own playing would have transcended such matters, considering how amazing it was (atleast in my opinion!).
Room Full of Mirrors by Charles R Cross