Amoz Gibson

Amoz Everett Gibson (August 3, 1918 – May 18, 1982) was an African American member of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme religious authority of the Baháʼí Faith.

Early life Amoz Gibson was born in Washington, D.C. to William and Deborah Gibson. His father William Gibson, studied as a minister at Howard University and became a Christian Science practitioner but had adopted the Bahá'í Faith together with his wife in 1912. Although Amoz attended children's classes of the Bahá'í Faith and attended Feasts with his father, he himself only joined the Bahá'í Faith in 1944.

Gibson obtained his Bachelor of Science in education with a major in social studies at the Miner Teachers College (now the University of the District of Columbia). He married Mary Elizabeth Lane in 1941. Gibson worked at the Washington Navy Yard and was drafted into the army in 1944, serving in the European and Pacific theatres in a segregated regiment.

Universal House of Justice In 1963, when attending the first Bahá'í International Convention in Haifa, Israel, Gibson was elected to the first Universal House of Justice, the supreme ruling body of the worldwide Bahá'í movement. Gibson subsequently relocated to Haifa with his family, arriving in July 1963. He was appointed as Convener of the Department of Holy Places and was heavily involved in the structural designs and maintenance of the Bahá'í Shrines in Haifa. Gibson continued to teach while travelling across the globe, visiting Baha’i communities in Europe, America and the Middle East.

Illness and death Gibson was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in August 1980. Although treatment caused his illness to go into remission for a year, it became apparent that the diagnosis was terminal. In the final year of his life, Gibson visited his children some of whom were ‘pioneering’ Bahá'í teachings around the world. He resigned from the Universal House of Justice shortly before his death. He died on May 14 in Haifa.

On May 15, the Universal House of Justice notified the international Bahá'í community of Gibson's death: