He never listened to the haters and blazed his own trail.

He was a tall skinny hippie flower child punk who broke barriers for black guitars.

But he never imagined that his gorgeous, reimagined version of a beloved American song would have

such an unexpected response and enraged so many white people.

This is two-minute black history, what you didn't learn in school.

All his life, white people harassed him.

In the army, in his hometown of Seattle, in Jim Crow America, army officers who shouted

in his face knew this kid with soft hands did not belong.

No one cared enough to see his genius, but soon the world would.

When Al Hendrix bought his 12-year-old son a guitar, he never suspected what Jimmy would

become.

Jimmy spent years playing the Chitlin circuit without much success, but all the while he

was innovating how the electric guitar was played, then a massive opportunity arose to

show the world what he could do.

When Woodstock asked him to headline the Massive Festival in 1969, black men in the Vietnam

War were dying at an extremely high rate.

America was killing and abusing black people at home and abroad.

He had to make a statement.

The National Anthem erupted from his guitar, but it wasn't any old star-spangled banner.

Within you could hear bomb-strapping and violence ringing out from his decked plane.

His anti-war message was in his music.

White Americans were furious.

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