The Baháʼí Faith in Haiti began in 1916 when ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the head of the religion, cited Haiti as one of the island countries of the Caribbean where Baháʼís should establish a religious community. The first Baháʼí to visit the island was Mrs. Harriet Gibbs Marshall, from 1922 to 1928. Another early Baháʼí to visit Haiti was Leonora Armstrong in 1927. After that, others visited Haiti, and by January 1937 Louis George Gregory visited the island and cited the presence of a small community of Baháʼís. The first long term pioneers, Ruth and Ellsworth Blackwell, arrived in 1940. Following their arrival the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Haiti was formed in 1942 in Port-au-Prince. From 1951 the Haitian Baháʼís participated in regional organizations of the religion until 1961 when Haitian Baháʼís elected their own National Spiritual Assembly and soon took on goals reaching out into neighboring islands. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying mostly on the World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 23,000 Baháʼís in Haiti in 2005, and about the same in 2010.

Early phase

ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the religion, wrote a series of letters, or tablets, to the followers of the religion in the United States in 1916–1917; these letters were compiled together in a book titled Tablets of the Divine Plan. The sixth of the tablets was the first to mention Latin American regions and was written on April 8, 1916, but was delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919—after the end of the First World War and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The sixth tablet was translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919.

His Christ Holiness says: Travel ye to the East and to the West of the world and summon the people to the Kingdom of God....(travel to) the Islands of the West Indies, such as Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Islands of the Lesser Antilles, Bahama Islands, even the small Watling Island, have great importance...

In 1922 Harriet Gibbs Marshall accompanied her husband to Haiti, where he was sent by President Warren G. Harding to be a part of the U.S. legation. They lived there for six years, during which time she founded the Jean Joseph Industrial School in Port-au-Prince and worked extensively with Haitian social welfare charities. She had been a Baha'i since 1912 and is famous for having provided the venue for the first integrated Baha'i Feast in the Southern United States at her 902 T Street Music School. She also opened schools serving those of African Descent in Kentucky in 1900 and DC in 1902.

Five years later, Leonora Armstrong visited Haiti in 1927 as part of her plan to complement and complete Martha Root's unfulfilled intention of visiting all the Latin American countries for the purpose of presenting the religion to an audience. In 1929 Keith Ransom-Kehler visited Haiti.

Seven Year Plan and succeeding decades

Shoghi Effendi, head of the religion after the death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, wrote a cable on May 1, 1936, to the Baháʼí Annual Convention of the United States and Canada, and asked for the systematic implementation of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's vision to begin. In his cable he wrote: Appeal to assembled delegates ponder historic appeal voiced by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Tablets of the Divine Plan. Urge earnest deliberation with incoming National Assembly to insure its complete fulfillment. First century of Baháʼí Era drawing to a close. Humanity entering outer fringes most perilous stage its existence. Opportunities of present hour unimaginably precious. Would to God every State within American Republic and every Republic in American continent might ere termination of this glorious century embrace the light of the Faith of Baháʼu'lláh and establish structural basis of His World Order.

Following the May 1 cable, another cable from Shoghi Effendi came on May 19 calling for permanent pioneers to be established in all the countries of Latin America. The Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada appointed the Inter-America Committee to take charge of the preparations. During the 1937 Baháʼí North American Convention, Shoghi Effendi cabled advising the convention to prolong their deliberations to permit the delegates and the National Assembly to consult on a plan that would enable Baháʼís to go to Latin America as well as to include the completion of the outer structure of the Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. In 1937 the First Seven Year Plan (1937–44), which was an international plan designed by Shoghi Effendi, gave the American Baháʼís the goal of establishing the Baháʼí Faith in every country in Latin America.

Establishment

Just before this plan was announced, the next Baháʼís to visit were Louis George Gregory and his wife, who could speak French, in January 1937. While there they had a chance to meet Oswald Garrison Villard. Gregory indicated a community of at least five active members who had French translations of Some Answered Questions, and that the community was refused permission to hold public meetings. Several Baháʼís then made stops of varying lengths in Haiti.

Ruth and Ellsworth Blackwell are noted as pioneers starting around 1940. By 1941 three converts to the religion include Mr. and Mrs. McBean and Muriel Johnson, a Jamaican couple and niece. The first Local Spiritual Assembly of Haiti was formed in 1942 in Port-au-Prince. Further translations, including the Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, arrived later in 1942. The Blackwells left by July 1943 though the community continued functioning. Word is received of two converts, Royer Dejean and Andre Paul, by January 1944. In 1943 writer and Baháʼí Alain Locke was on leave as Inter-American exchange Professor to Haiti under the joint auspices of the American Committee for Inter-American Artistic and Intellectual Relations and the Haitian Ministry of Education. Towards the end of his stay there, President Élie Lescot personally decorated Locke with the National Order of Honour and Merit, grade of Commandeur. In March 1946 Dr. Malcolm King moved to Haiti. By August there were some 20 Baháʼís in Port-au-Prince and the assembly was able to register with the national government. King moved away in 1947 while other pioneers move to Haiti. In early 1948 a Latin American Congress was called in Mexico to coordinate institutional growth across the region and the delegate from Haiti was Martial Coulange. In late 1948 Gayle Woolson and early 1949 Louise Caswell each were able to travel through Haiti communities like Saint Marc and elsewhere and gave public talks.

By 1949 Baháʼís of Port-au-Prince had a working center which served to have children and adult oriented events including classes, free medical, dental, and legal services as well as chances to hear about the religion. The Blackwell's returned to Haiti in 1950.

Growth

Internationally

From the early period of development the Baháʼí community in Haiti grew in relation to its regional neighbors as well as internally. The Baháʼís of the region of northern Latin America were first organized under the regional national assembly of Central America, Mexico and the Antilles from 1951. The inaugural convention was witnessed by Hand of the Cause Dorothy Beecher Baker at which the Baháʼís of Haiti were assigned two delegates from its local assembly of Port-au-Prince. Then Haitian Baháʼís were assigned to the regional assembly of the Greater Antilles from 1957 until 1961, when the Haitian Baháʼís elected their own National Spiritual Assembly with Hand of the Cause Ugo Giachery representing the Baháʼí International Community. The members of the first National Spiritual Assembly of Haiti were: Eustace Bailey, Alcide Narcisse, Jean Desert, Joseph Albert Bajeux, Ellsworth Blackwell, André St. Louis, Joseph C. Pierre, Ruth Blackwell, and Circé Brantome. In 1963 the Baháʼís of the world looked to the election of the Universal House of Justice as the new head of the religion. The delegates for the international convention were the members of the national assemblies then in existence. The members of the Haitian National Assembly who participated in the election were: Eustace Bailey, Odette Benjamin, Ellsworth Blackwell, Ruth Blackwell, Circe Brantome, Jean Desert, Alcide Narcisse, Speline Posy, André St. Louis (all of whom voted in absentia). In 1964 Haitian Baháʼís were then given goal areas to spread the religion including Barbuda, St. Kitts-Nevis, Saba, St. Eustatis, St. Martin, Guadeloupe, Antigua and Martinique. In 1965 Guadeloupe and Martinique had families from Haiti pioneer there while members of the national assembly attended a Honduran conference on the progress of the religion there. Over the next few years pioneers from Haiti went to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, and Dahomey (now called Benin) followed by Dominica in 1971 – Hand of the Cause, ʻAlí-Muhammad Varqá, offered a conference workshop on pioneering at the Amelia Collins Baháʼí School at Liancourt later in 1971.

Internally