From outward appearance the strip of concrete isn’t special. The steel overhead and beneath aren’t either.

Yet the bridge across a modest river in Alabama has become synonymous with one of America’s biggest internal struggles — the Civil Rights Movement.

As nonviolent marchers topped the apex of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., they were confronted with engrained hatred in the form of Alabama State Troopers and police who had been ordered to stop the march.

Weaker, less dedicated individuals might have turned around in the face of danger. But, fortunately for America’s sake, the marchers continued plodding along, marching for a cause they believed in deeply — the right to vote in America.

We all know the incredible violence that ensued at the hands of so-called law officers.

Fortunately, eventually the violence that was endured by marchers in Selma caused enough of the national spotlight to shine on the problem until things started to change. Later in 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed, setting into motion a sea change across the South.

The marchers walked out of Brown Chapel that Sunday morning on a mission to change America. They did just that.

Young people — black, white and all shades in between — may not immediately appreciate just how far things have changed in 50 years.

Yes, the events of Selma are ugly in what happened that day at the foot of the concrete and steel bridge, but the results those heroic efforts allowed to happen later are uniquely and beautifully American.