Democratic State Assemblywoman E. Inez Dickens — a longtime Harlem politician — is retiring next year.

She’s spent over two decades in public office: serving as a district leader, City Councilwoman and the 70th state Assembly district.

“I love this community so much. I love the village. I was raised to love Harlem. Sometimes when I walk the streets, tears flow,” Dickens said, looking down on a bustling street.

“The federalist architecture that still is strongly vested in this community. This is the Studio Museum of Harlem,” she pointed to the building still under construction on 125th Street. “[It’s] for the people of this village and for others coming in to visit Harlem to be able to go to a fantastically modern studio museum that reflects the cultural history of this village, and actually of Black people in this great country.”

Her family settled in what she calls “the village” in the early 1900s.

Politics runs in her family: her father, Lloyd E. Dickens, was a successful real estate developer and state assemblyman. Her uncle, Thomas K. Dickens, was also a state assemblyman before serving as a State Supreme Court justice.

“They’re used to a Dickens being involved. I mean, my uncle, before he became a Supreme Court justice, served as an assemblymember for this same district in the 40s, and then, and my father was in the 50s and the 60s, for the same Assembly district,” she said.

Elected to the City Council in 2006, Dickens worked with former Council Speaker Christine Quinn and also assumed a leadership role.

“I said, but I’m not your usual freshman. I’m a freshman with knowledge and I want to be in leadership and she put me in leadership,” she recalled.

Eventually chairing the Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions and Concessions, Dickens drew on her background in real estate.

“That made me known citywide, not just within my district or just my borough, but citywide,” she said. “I became known citywide for land use and I was good at it because I come from a real estate background.”

In 2016, Dickens won her state Assembly seat that was formerly held for over 20 years by now-Manhattan Democratic County Chairman Keith Wright.

She says it happened with support from other well-known Harlemites like the Rev. Al Sharpton and former Congressman Charles Rangel.

“Harlem was way ahead of its time and the reason it was able to be significant in politics was because, like I said, they work together,” Dickens said.

She says her greatest accomplishments include helping small businesses, enacting legislation to assist those who are hearing impaired and cracking down on retail theft.

“The store owners, the small mom and pop stores said ‘we’re going out of business’ and if a community no longer has small business, it dies,” she said.

Remembering Harlem’s rich past and present, Dickens says she expects great things from her successor: Jordan Wright. He’s also the son of Keith Wright.

“I believe he will do better than I did. I think he will surpass. He’s younger, he’s got newer ideas,” she said.

“Inez is an icon in the Harlem community, and somebody I’ve known my whole life. Her story is far from over, and as I begin a new chapter of my life as Assemblyman for the 70th district, I look forward to having her voice as a guide throughout my first term and beyond,” Wright told NY1 in a statement.

The 75-year-old Dickens says she will continue on serving her community as a district leader.