Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois were two African American scholars of the later 1800s and early 1900s who captured the imagination of both blacks and whites at various levels of society. They disagreed on how blacks should be educated and what they should be taught. Du Bois wanted blacks to become intellectuals, equal to white scholars, while Washington insisted on basic skills and vocational education. A study of the childhood of each man reveals the etiology of their personal and professional philosophies and illustrates how the study of an important figure can be content for multicultural education. The ideas of James Banks relative to personal knowledge and cultural knowledge are illustrated in the early lives of Du Bois and Washington. Washington, born into slavery in 1856, became the most well-known black educator of his time. Although he founded Tuskegee University, he stressed the importance of basic education and vocational skills for all blacks. The roots of this philosophy may be found in his childhood of poverty and limited access to basic education. Du Bois, born in 1868, was the only black student in his high school graduating class. His opportunities for schooling were consistent and free, and formed the basis for his emphasis on higher academic education and the importance of scholarship. The philosophies of these men were formed by their experiences, as educational theories have often stressed. A study of their early lives illustrates the importance of experience in the formation of the individual and provides material that can be used in multicultural education of children. (Contains 15 references.) (SLD)