Question

Passage
Audio
In 1946, President Harry S. Truman established the President's Committee on Civil Rights. The following passage comes from the report produced by that committee and features an excerpt from Chapter 1, "The American Heritage: the Promise of Freedom and Equality."
from "To Secure These Rights: Report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights"
In the time that it takes to read this report, 1,000 Americans will be born. These new Americans will come into families whose religious faiths are a roster of all those which men hold sacred. Their names will be strange and varied, echoes from every corner of the world. Their skins will range in color from
On pages 1 and 2 of the Passage, why does the committee list facts in the first paragraph of the report?
to praise the United States for progress before pointing out the deficiencies that still exist
to identify the people who are deprived of freedoms before talking about new challenges
to point out the diversity of United States citizens before talking about the rights denied to some
to raise awareness about population growth before discussing basic rights black to white. A few will be born to riches, more to average comfort, and too many to poverty. All of them will be Americans.
These new Americans, drawn from all of the races of mankind, provide a challenge to our American democracy. We have a great heritage of freedom and equality for all men, sometimes called "the American way." Yet we cannot avoid the knowledge that the American ideal still awaits complete realization.
It was this knowledge which led the President to create this Committee; and the Committee's assignment has been primarily to discover wherein and to what extent we are presently failing to live up to that ideal. As we have said, this has meant that in its deliberations, and in this report, the Committee has focused its attention, not upon our achievements in protecting our heritage of civil liberties, but upon our shortcomings and our mistakes. These the Committee has not minimized nor has it evaded the responsibility of recommending remedial action....
If we are to judge with accuracy how far short we have fallen living up to the ideals which comprise our American heritage of freedom and equality, we must first make clear what that heritage is. The central theme in our American heritage is the importance of the individual person. From the earliest moment of our history we have believed that every human being has an essential dignity and integrity which must be respected and safeguarded. Moreover, we believe that the welfare of the individual is the final goal of group life.... This concept of equality which is so vital a part of the American heritage knows no kinship with notions of human uniformity or regimentation.
We abhor the totalitarian arrogance which makes one man say that he will respect another man as his equal only if he has "my race, my religion, my political views, my social position." In our land men are equal, but they are free to be different. From these very differences among our people has come the great human and national strength of America.
Thus, the aspirations and achievements of each member of our society are to be limited only by the skills and energies he brings to the opportunities equally offered to all Americans.
We can tolerate no restrictions upon the individual which depend upon irrelevant factors such as his race, his color, his religion or the social position to which he is born....

Answer 1

to point out the diversity of United States citizens before talking about the rights denied to some

The paragraph lists births, religions, names, skin colors, and economic conditions to emphasize how varied Americans are and to set up the argument that equal rights must apply to this diverse population.