Winthrop University is a public university in Rock Hill, South Carolina. It was founded in 1886 by David Bancroft Johnson, who served as the superintendent of Columbia, South Carolina, schools. He received a grant from Robert Charles Winthrop, a philanthropist from Boston, Massachusetts and chair of the Peabody Education Board in Massachusetts, to establish the school.

Rock Hill is the most populous city in York County, South Carolina, United States, and the 5th-most populous city in the state. It is also the 4th-most populous city of the Charlotte metropolitan area, behind Charlotte, Concord, and Gastonia. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 74,372.