For over fifty years Henrietta M. Gibbs was an active member of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery. In the life of that congregation she taught a Sunday school class which she led to a ministry among women of the Julia Tutwiler Prison, Wetumpka. She was a trustee of the church, and treasurer for fifteen years. With her husband, James Albert Gibbs, she organized a dramatic group, providing an outlet for talented members of the congregation.

On the state level with her denomination, she was a chartered trustee of Selma University, leading in the support of that institution. The dining hall at Selma University was named for her. She was president of the Alabama Baptist Women's Convention, 1922-1960, and led in a fund drive for missionary support, providing an automobile for a Selma doctor who was a missionary to Africa.

For fifteen years (1945-1960) Mrs. Gibbs served as treasurer of the National Baptist Women's Convention, and represented this body at Baptist World Alliance meetings in Copenhagen (1947) and London (1955).

In civic and social endeavors Mrs. Gibbs became a well-known person in the state. She was president of the Anna M. Duncan Club, a federated service club for women in Montgomery, and was president of the Alabama Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, 1936-43, also serving that organization as Chairman of the Executive Board, 1943-47. Along with other members of the Alabama Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, she was instrumental in the establishment of institutions for delinquent youth at Mt. Meigs.

Mrs. Gibbs sought clemency for the first African-American woman sentenced to be executed in the electric chair, and was the first African-American woman registered to vote in Montgomery, 1921. A public housing project in Montgomery was named for her.