The historian Robin Winks described the various Black Canadian communities in the 1920s as being very diverse, which he described as being made up of "rural blacks from small towns in Nova Scotia, prosperous farmers from Ontario, long-time residents of Vancouver Island, sophisticated New York newcomers to Montreal, activist West Indians who were not, they insisted, Negroes at all" – indeed so diverse that unity was difficult. At the same time, Winks wrote that racism in Canada lacked a "consistent pattern" as "racial borders shifted, gave way, and stood firm without consistency, predictability or even credibility". Inspired by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the United States, in 1924 J. W. Montgomery of Toronto and James Jenkins of London founded the Canadian League for the Advancement of Coloured People as an umbrella group for all of the Canadian Black communities. Another attempt to provide unity for the Black communities in Canada was made by the followers of Marcus Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association, which opened its first Canadian branch in Montreal in 1919. After his deportation from the United States in 1927, Garvey settled in Montreal in 1928. However, when Garvey urged his American followers not to vote for Herbert Hoover in the 1928 election, the American consul in Montreal complained about this "interference" in American politics and Garvey was expelled from Canada at the urging of the U.S. government. Garvey was allowed to return to Canada in 1936 and 1937 where he held rallies in Toronto preaching his Back-to-Africa message. Garvey, an extremely charismatic man who inspired intense devotion in his followers, proved to be a divisive and controversial figure with his Back-to-Africa message and his insistence that black people embrace segregation as the best way forward. Most Black Canadian community leaders rejected Garvey's message, arguing that Canada, not Africa, was their home and that embracing segregation was a retrogressive and self-defeating move.