First African American Church
First African American Church. On this site stood Warner Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the first African American Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the site for the first school for African Americans in east Knoxville. Founded in 1845, it was reported to be a site on the Underground Railroad to freedom. The site of the church moved several times. In 1987 the congregation moved to a church building at 3800 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue.