Various types of visuals are included in social studies textbooks such as pictures, illustrations, maps, and photographs as they are considered powerful learning aids. Therefore, it is important to investigate how visuals in social studies textbooks are perceived by the students. Thus, the first purpose of this paper is to discuss how students view and treat visuals in their textbooks and how they make meaning from them. The second purpose is to have students create alternative visuals to those they do not find meaningful and useful. Unexpectedly the Martin Luther King picture was selected as the least conspicuous visual in the seventh-grade social studies textbook by the students. While this finding was very surprising as he had been a prominent figure in the civil rights movement, participating students were asked to create alternative visuals of this particular picture and some of the selected visuals among all were analysed for this study. In conclusion, this study has shown even seventh grade students are able to create visuals in various forms and qualities that convey deep meanings; and the analysis of these visuals may suggest what kind of attributes a visual should have in order to be more comprehensible for students.