Orr received his undergraduate education from Savannah State College, earning a BA in political science in 1984.
[1][2] He was the solo author of the 1999 book Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore, 1986-1998.
In Black Social Capital, Orr applies the theory of social capital to the topic of education reform in the United States, using the city of Baltimore as the basis for a case study, and relying on extensive interviews and fieldwork as well as published materials.
[4] Black Social Capital won the Policy Studies Organization's Aaron Wildavsky Award for the best book published in 1999.
[2] He has also been the chair of the political science department at Brown University,[2] as well as the director of the urban studies program there.