What would the books be like if Tolkien had lived in this age.

[HCIsland]

Tolkien never had any black characters in his book.

Are you sure of that? I'd have to dig up the quote but I think the Concerning Hobbits prologue describes hobbits as having a wide variety of skin tones. This actually makes sense considering that they, and the Men of this region as well, populated the area from a wide variety of places as the kingdoms of Arnor fell. I'm sure that there are old threads concerning this and I don't want to drift off topic, but I've always considered the region in and around The Shire to be quite multi-racial.

Ironically enough, Jackson wouldn't have been able to reflect this in his films (sorry for the film digression) as it would have been seen as patronizing political correctness that would have only served as an incredible distraction.

H.C.